So I probably should have posted last night about us coming down... but I didn't. So here it is!

Thursday we left SLC around 2pm to drive down to Vegas. I have never seen more Highway Patrol along I-15 than this trip down. Fortunately we spotted them quick, would yell "Cop!", then rolled down the windows. No problems.

We got here, and wow, our room is awesome! We're at the Marriott Grand Chateau, just a block off the strip, by the Harley Shop. It's a one bedroom condo, meaning we have a full kitchen in here. The bathroom is huge too! On our way up to our room we rode in the elevator with some other fans mostly in Jeff Gordon gear. We were getting off first. Since the only NASCAR clothes I had was a #55 Michael Waltrip hat, I was wearing that. The father commented to let us off first as it was the only time the 55 would be first all weekend. I tried to defend myself saying I was for Gordon all the way, and it was all I had, but I don't think they believed it.

So after getting settled, we went out to go eat. We are directly across from the Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood. So we walked through that looking for a place to eat. Didn't see anything that sounded good. So we kept walking, and went over to the Forum at Caesars Palace, and wound our way down to The Cheesecake Factory. I had a huge bowl of bowtie pasta in a yummy cream sauce.

We made our way back to our condo and crashed.

Friday:
In order for our room to be free, Sarah had to do a tour in the morning. So after she finished that around 10 am, we left for the track. As soon as we got there we started going up and down the merchandise trailers. So many trailers. I splurged. Picked up a sweet Die-Cast, polo shirt, hat, sticker, lanyard, and jacket from the Jeff Gordon trailers. I'm pretty much set now. We didn't want to carry our stuff all day so we took it back to the car where we met up with Nick's parents. We went back in, I finished my purchases, and we went up to our seats. We were on row 41 in the Petty Terrace right at the end of Pit Road. Very cool. We can totally see the entire track from there! So we were chillin up there for a bit during the Nationwide Series practice. Then just before it ended Nick and I decided to go out into the garages.

Yes... We had Pit passes! The only downer is they were "Cold" passes, so when the Cup was qualifying we couldn't go back into the garages, but we did go through the Nationwide Series garages. If they were "Hot" passes we would have been able to go back into the Cup area while they were on the track. But we did get to go up and down pit road, and will be doing that tomorrow during the Nationwide race to watch the teams pit. That will be so awesome!

So we started at the north end of Pit Road, and made our way down to the south end (exit), then back up. Towards the entrance is where the cars would go after qualifying. We chilled and took some cool pictures. Then went to see the top cars. While we were there Carl Edwards took the Pole from Jeff Gordon. Boo! Seriously though he was lame! There were some fans lined up against the fence and he didn't even acknowledge them. It was so poor. Just after that though Kyle Busch took the pole from Edwards. While I hate the way the guy drives he was seriously cool to the fans. He came over and signed a ton of autographs for the fans, and was way cool about it. I got the back of my lanyard signed by him. A little while later I was also able to get David Reutimann's autograph from the same spot. Very impressed with Kyle though.

After qualifying was over we headed back out, and met up with Nick's parents at the Speed TV booth. Darrell Waltrip, Larry Macreynolds, Darrell Hammond and another guy were there doing the show. So I was on the background there. Kyle came up since he won the pole, and did some TV time. It took about an hour for us to get back to the condo (16 miles) after qualifying.

We went over to Von's grocery store and got some grub since we have the kitchen, then came back here to relax before tomorrow. I'll be uploading most of the pictures tonight, but I do have a panarama to stitch together before that goes up. That I'll do at home. Now tomorrow morning Nick and I are hitting the garage first thing, and hoping to get Jeff Gordon & Jeff Burton's autographs.

Check the gallery for the pics!