“NASCAR Preseason Thunder”, just the right fix to jump start the 2007 season and keep us race junkies revved up until the Daytona 500. Jayme and I took full advantage of owning our own business by taking off to Daytona Speedway to catch Daytona’s preseason FanFest and to get in line in hopes of getting one of the 150 wrist bands that would allow us to get one item signed by Jeff.
We woke up and arrived at Daytona International Speedway at about 5:30 am and were surprised to see a group of 24 fans already lined up at the turn 4 entrance. We got in line and begun our day as the 24th car in line, a very good start for the awesome day ahead of us! At 9 am sharp the guards started the “Jeff Gordon fan parade” leading the cars to the tunnel entrance where one by one we were handed our yellow wristbands.
First let me say that Daytona did a wonderful job on the fan zone. It was neat to watch the teams working on their cars from the glass windows. The first driver I saw when I walked up was Carl Edwards as he sat by his window eating a bowl of cereal. We bought a Daytona shirt so we would have something to get autographs on and set out to get some.
Most drivers took some time to open their garage stall windows in order to great the fans, say hello and sign some autographs all in all we got about 12 signatures on our shirt. But the main reason we made the trip to the Florida coast was to see Jeff and get his autograph. I spent a lot of the day by his window watching Steve and the guys work on Jeff’s 2 test cars. I got a lot of good pictures of Jeff as he talked to Steve and on 6 occasions opened his window to sign stuff for fans.
Time went by fast and at 4 o’clock people started lining up outside stall 44 where Jeff was to start signing at 5:15. Jeff walked out to a roar from the crowd that had gathered then sat at his table to great his fans. We took our spot at the end of the line and waited for our chance to meet him.
I took my car tag that says 5 TIME in with me, I have it on the back of a Jeff Gordon edition Monte Carlo. On either side of the tag I have the words “Future” and “Champ” so if you look at the back it says “Future 5 TIME Champ”. As we walked up to him I held it up and said “this is you buddy, this is your year!” Jeff laughed and said I sure hope so! We talked a little about the car and the tag. I got him to sign my hat and Jayme got a picture signed.
I asked him if he would hold the tag and let me get a picture and he said sure. When he turned the tag around and held it up the people who were gathered to see Jeff could then see what it said and it got them cheering for that 5th championship. I heard a few people that were behind me saying “ohh that’s so cool look!” I snapped a picture and Jeff, who was really having a good time with this said “no wait take another picture”. That said he grinned and held the tag up with one hand and crossed his fingers with the other. At that moment I took the coolest picture I have ever seen of Jeff Gordon. The picture kind of says it all, and we are with you Jeff .... we have our fingers crossed with you!
Jeff was really laid back and we enjoyed the time we were able to talk with him. We didn’t feel rushed even though it was time for him to go on the SPEED stage. Jeff took time for each and every one of us, even for one little boy who didn’t get a wrist band and asked for his autograph when he was done. Jeff walked up to him and said “I can’t sign it but I can shake your hand” and he bent down to take a few moments with him. Then he shook hands with everyone who wanted to along the fence. Now that’s first class!
The next morning we took some time out to drive the car out on the beach to get some pictures, played around Daytona then headed home. All in all the FanFest was a great time and getting that picture of Jeff was priceless!
Patrick aka UamazedME
See ya down the road!