Logano 1st repeat winner at Kentucky

This picture (from Friday night's practice) shows eventual race winner Joey Logano diving down into turn 3 at Kentucky Speedway

With some advice from Mark Slaughter, the Channel 9 photographer I went to Kentucky Speedway with on Friday evening, I traveled down to the track on Saturday the 13^th. I went on my own to enjoy the best racing to visit Cincinnati’s nearest NASCAR venue. And, let me tell you, did I have a ball.

But I was also on a mission to change my own perception on Kentucky Speedway. As you have probably read in the past, I absolutely can’t stand the place after a bad experience in 2000. This night would change my opinion, but only slightly.

We arrived nearly an hour and a half before the green flag was to drop and found zero traffic (something I’ve been skeptical of for years at Kentucky). I walked through the gate and headed down to the media center and the infield where I was the night before. I waited there and walked amongst team members and drivers, fans and other media personalities until the green flag dropped. Along the way I spotted some NASCAR drivers, and their rides.

Kyle Busch--NASCAR's most hated driver--walks toward driver intros

Kyle Busch's crew pushes his #18 Camry onto the starting grid

I also saw all the cars that I stood inches from the previous evening, including the famed #60 that Mark Martin drove for years. Although it looks different in red, white and blue, it will always be the car that “The Kid” drove to 47 wins in the Busch Series.

The Save-A-Lot Ford Fusion carries the famed #60, but no longer carries the Winn-Dixie logos

And I also found two legends of the sport milling around, Derrike Cope and Morgan Shepherd. I grew up watching these guys compete in the Cup Series against Mark Martin, and although they’ve since dropped to running Nationwide Series cars, they’ll always be famed Cup guys to “oldies” like me. Plus, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include Morgan Shepherd’s sponsor. He drives the Racing with Jesus car. How cool is that? Let the NASCAR fans say, ‘Amen.’

Derrike Cope hanging out on pit road before the start of the Meijer 300

Morgan Shepherd makes his way to his Chevrolet. He finished 25th

Kenny Wallace before he blew his engine and finished only 19 laps of the Meijer 300

I’ve sat for a few years behind the pit stalls at Indianapolis, but never have I been close enough to actually put my foot on the pit wall. After the green flag dropped, I headed down pit road to check out some early race pit stops, including Stephen Leicht, who spun, and Danny O’Quinn, who had his hood up.

Stephen Leicht, the 2007 winner at Kentucky, spun early and had to pit

Danny O'Quinn's #01 Sun Drop sponsored car had a less than sunny opening to the race

After about twenty laps, I headed up to the top of the grandstands to get a better view of the entire race. You really can’t see much from the pits, but it is an experience. Logano and teammate Kyle Busch ran up front for most of the race, but Logano got caught speeding on pit road (as did numerous other drivers, including Carl Edwards, twice) and had to start from deep in the field.

It didn’t matter. The youngster ran down his teammate and after a late race red flag period, ran right by him. Logano pulled away from Busch and ended up winning by a shade over 1.6 seconds. By the time Logano took the checkered flag I was maneuvering through the masses, heading back down to the media center to take part in the post race interviews.

Although I didn’t have a camera, I brought along my brand new voice/sound recorder. I figured if I was getting into this profession I might want to have one just in case. To be honest, the press conferences were less exciting than I thought they’d be and I couldn’t think of a single thing to ask any of the drivers (Brad Keselowski, Brendan Gaughn, Logano and Logano’s crew chief Dave Rogers).

Logano (left) and crew chief Dave Rogers answer questions about Logano's second straight win at Kentucky Speedway

Either way, it was quite an interesting weekend. I’d love to get paid to do that. Imagine my excitement if I was at Michigan the next day when Mark Martin had won. So, maybe I need to look into getting paid to do this. After all, I think it’d be awfully sweet.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, I’ve e-mailed Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s media relations department about getting a media pass for the Brickyard 400 in July. We’re just a few days away from the four week mark until Indy, and I’ll start counting down next week.

I’m hoping that I have enough free time every day here in the office to knock out a post, or I get a decent working computer back up and running at home. Either way, I’m looking forward to posting once a day Monday through Friday up to the Brickyard 400. It should be an entertaining countdown. I’m looking forward to it. Have a great day, a great weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday with some thoughts on the weekend in NASCAR.