DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG REFLECTS ONLY THE OPINION OF THE WRITER: GARRETT GLEASON AND DOES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF ANYONE AT ROBBY GORDON MOTORSPORTS. ALSO, ALL COMPANY NAMES HAVE BEEN REMOVED FOR CONFIDENTIALITY. LASTLY, THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE DAILY JOURNAL, AS SOME STORIES MAY OF HAD TO BE EDITED OUT TO ADDRESS PRIVACY CONCERNS. I REFUSE TO INCORPORATE ANYTHING SAID IN THE TEAM HAULER, PIT ROAD, OR AIRPLANE IN THIS JOURNAL, AS I BELIEVE THEY ARE OFF LIMITS. IF ANYONE FROM RGM HAS AN ISSUE WITH THIS JOURNAL JUST TELL ME AND I WILL REMOVE IT. THE JOURNAL IS AN ATTEMPT TO GIVE FANS A LOOK AT THE LIFE OF AN INTERN AT RGM, AND IS DESIGNED TO PORTRAY RGM IN A 100% POSITIVE FASHION


Robby Gordon Motorsports Internship

Day one: Since I am used to sleeping odd hours considering it is summer, I never got a chance to get any sleep before my 4 am wake up. So I got out of bed and took a shower and got ready. I was out of the house and on the road before 5 am. My mother and father drove me down to Philadelphia and to the airport. We arrived just after 7 am, and waited for a bit as my flight left at 10:30. I went through security at about 9:30 and boarded the plane around 10. It was my first time ever on a plane, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was relatively smooth, I couldn’t gather enough courage to look out the window at that time, but the flight was rather smooth. By the time I had my orange juice and pretzels the flight was over and I had arrived in Cleveland Ohio.

I got off the plane at Cleveland and went straight to the gate, the flight to Charlotte was set to take off at 12:20 and I boarded around 11:45. I took my seat in the Emergency Row and flew to Charlotte. This time I had a window seat so I gathered up the courage to look out the window. I spent about 90% of the trip watching out the window trying to see if I could notice anything familiar, I didn’t really notice anything and about an hour later I arrived in Charlotte. I took a long walk to baggage claim, during this time I spoke with Tom Norwood, who is the Director of Marketing at RGM who was picking me up, it took me so long to actually find my bags they had to page me, and he came in to help me, but by that time I had found them. I saw Tom wearing his white Robby Gordon Motorsports Polo and walked over, he was looking for someone, probably someone a bit handsomer, but none the less he got me. I carried my 50.5 lb bag to the truck, of course as a RGM employee Tom has a tricked out truck which is lifted so high you can get a nosebleed getting in, pretty sweet actually. I got in the truck and immediately the air conditioning was on and country music playing, I could tell I was in North Carolina. We made a quick stop for gas before proceeding to the shop.

At the shop I was introduced to everyone including Alison who I had spoken with on the phone once and emailed a bunch over the time I was working on cars. We walked by Robby’s office but he wasn’t in there at the time, so I continued rounds and met Kevin Wilson, who is now doing the work on Robby’s Paint schemes along with some photo, video, and marketing work. After meeting Kevin, Tom took me on a tour of the shop. Absolutely amazing, I loved every second of it. Saw the New Hampshire cars being prepared. Saw some other 2009 COT’s and walked down the line and saw some of the old cars including some old Cup and Busch/Nationwide cars as well as an open wheel car and some Dakar support vehicles. RGM actually builds all their own stuff now and I saw some chassis that they were working on. For a small team they certainly work hard. Tom then introduced me to Glen, who I will be living with during my time in N.C. After my tour I made my way back to Kevin’s office and sat down. I asked Kevin what I could do for him and he gave me 2 cars he needed done, so I pulled out my flash drive with my painting files and got to work. A few hours later, Tom sent me home so I could unpack, get something to eat, and sleep. Glen and I went for Chinese after I got situated in my room; I got some Orange Chicken, which tasted more like what we call General Tso’s in PA. It was really good and Glen and I watched some Jackass, I believe they were participating in something called the Bubble Gum Rally. Before the episode was over, I had passed out in the chair, shortly after I woke up wondering what the hell had happened, but that’s what I get for not sleeping, after 30+ hours being up my body just went to sleep whether I wanted it to or not. I then went upstairs and went to sleep. I was out by 8:30. My phone rang once, it was my grandfather telling me the Yankees had lost 4-0, what a surprise, they suck. At that time it was about 10:30, so I went back to sleep and woke up around 2. I then went back to sleep and got up at 3:30. I then slept for another 45 minutes and then I was up until 5:15 before catching another 45 minutes of sleep before I had to get up and get ready for work. Tom was set to pick me up at 7:15.

Day 2: My alarm went off at 6 and my mother also called to make sure I was awake so I got up and brushed my teeth and got in the shower. After my shower I got dressed and proceeded downstairs, grabbed some orange juice, turned on some Mike and Mike in the Morning and waited for Tom. Glen left before 7 for work, which was amazing because he got up after I did actually. Tom picked me at exactly 7:15. We then started driving to the shop, and Tom stopped for a breakfast sandwich on the way, which he called a biscuit. I have to adapt to this local lingo. We then made our way to RGM and I went into the office and started finishing those 2 projects from yesterday before Kevin arrived at 8. Kevin arrived around 8 and we began to discuss what we were going to do all day, so we got that sorted out and we decided I render the cars I had done as he compiled an Infineon video, and that once I was done I would install 3ds max 9 on his computer so that he could render cars. It took a little bit but we got the program working and I began to show Kevin how to use it, he wrote down the steps and I gave him some scenes to try out. He rendered a car with instructions the first time, and then briefly used them the next time and now he is rendering like a champion. During this time Tom brought Robby in to meet me, we shook hands and talked about if I liked their operation and North Carolina. After that Tom stopped by with some more cars to do so I decided to work on those while Kevin compiled that Infineon video. I did 2 different cars for the one company and did one for the company, they all looked pretty good. After that I decided to touch up some of the cars I had done in the morning and we made a few changes and Kevin even did an alternate of the one scheme I did which came out looking pretty sweet. During this time my friend and yours TOG called up to talk with Kevin about a few things and asked about me which was pretty cool. After that Robby stopped in to show us some funny pictures he had found while surfing the net, which was pretty funny. Then Alison stopped in for a brief chat, after that Kevin worked on the video while I rendered a few more scenes. Kevin finished the video about 6:30 and then took me home. Glen was still at work and actually just walked in as I was typing this, it is now 8:23 pm folks, appreciate all that hard work that goes into making the #7 hit the track each week fans. That’s a 13 hour day. We’ll I’m going to go out and get something to eat with Glen. I’ll write some more about my day tomorrow. Went to Outback, had a nice meal and then went home. Glen had company, so instead of getting in the way I went up to bed, searched a bit for a wireless signal to no avail, then about 11:30 I decided to call it a night and get some sleep.

Day 3: On Thursday I awakened at my now customary 6:00 am time slot with a call from my grandfather who was given the duties of getting me up. I then went through my morning routine and went downstairs and grabbed some orange juice, flipped on Mike and Mike in the Morning and waited for Tom to come pick me up at about 7:30. Glen was off today as he needed to get ready to fly out to New Hampshire. I decided it would be a good day to wear black, which was a mistake considering it got up to about 96 degrees. I arrived around 7:45 and went into Kevin’s office, which is where I work out of. Kevin had a dentist appointment and didn’t get in until 9ish, so I played around on the web for a bit and did some different renderings to pass the time. When Kevin arrived he began working on some marketing proposals, and he gave me a car to do for another proposal which I gladly worked on. While I was doing that I “obtained” a copy of Photoshop CS4 to put on the computers at RGM as the Photoshop CS3 they were using keeps closing unexpectedly causing Kevin to lose work. I watched in amazement as Kevin put together a simply stunning proposal using a car we had done the day before. Kevin certainly earns his paycheck and his truly talented when it comes to Photoshop and design work. I have learned a lot in the time I have been down here, and hopefully soon I will be able to be good enough with Photoshop that he doesn’t have to explain everything to me. After that Tom told me to get in touch with our buddy TOG regarding the Google Analytics of Planet Robby.com, it’s basically a breakdown of the site traffic. Be proud of yourselves PR members, the PR.com site is very popular and out ranks most of the other driver and team sites out there which are high budget operations. After that Tom asked me if I could work on a PowerPoint slide background like the kind Kevin does for their proposals. I am willing to try everything and anything down here and learn as much as I can so I figured I’d give it a shot. I pretty much used the website of the company to come up with a good looking background that I felt did the job and Kevin felt the same way. So after that I sent it in and prepared myself for more work, even though I had no idea where it would be coming from. At that time we decided to grab some lunch so Kevin and I headed over to Chik-fila, which I had never been to. We ate our meals and headed back to work. After lunch Kevin finished up his proposal while I checked out the analytic stuff, then to my surprise Robby came into the room with some changes he wanted made to a car they were working on. He came over to me which was weird, because Kevin was there and he is 100x better the designer than I am, probably because Kevin was so busy, which he was, so I listened to the changes he wanted made and I did some touching up on the file I had before shipping it over to Kevin so he could make the changes as it would take him probably half the time it would take me. Kevin did about 3 versions of this car, each better than the next. He printed them out and showed them to Robby who liked the one that Kevin and I both felt was the best. It’s pretty cool to have your childhood hero giving you advice on how he wants things done and getting the opportunity to help out makes it all worth it. So after that I figured I had my excitement for the day and that everything would be winding down but to my surprise Robby asked Kevin and I to follow him into the shop as he told us about something he wanted to get done graphics wise. He told us about some cool stuff they have planned which he wants modeled in 3D, I was amazed at his knowledge of every detail in the project he was talking about, he knew everything exactly and was shooting out numbers and figures quicker than a calculator. I certainly could tell that he is passionate about having it done the right way, which I completely respect. Kevin and I then made our way to Robby’s office where he showed us some concept stuff of that project, which Kevin took back with us. We should be able to do some version of what he wants using some files I found and Kevin’s skill. After that everyone was heading out so Kevin and I decided to do the same. Kevin punched out and we saw Robby and Alison leaving as well. Robby joked with Kevin about getting me a bike so he didn’t have to drive me home all the time. Then he asked about being at the shop, which I really like, and everyone is so nice and at times it’s pretty silly. Kevin and I were making our way to Glen’s house where I am staying, when on the radio we heard that the King of Pop and Child Molestation Michael Jackson had passed away of a heart attack, at first I didn’t believe it, but after I heard it a few times it sunk in. I made it home and told Kevin I’d see him tomorrow.

Then my friend and Planet Robby member Hank Lee gave me a ring, we made plans to go out to eat and someone needed to take me grocery shopping so Hank and I were off and running. Hank showed me around the area, showing me some team shops and local landmarks. We then stopped at Hank’s for a bit and he went on the web and showed me some funny stuff. We then proceeded downstairs and talked with his roommate before taking off for some dinner. We went to Lonestar where I had a steak, a potato, and some veggies. Hank and I bullshitted about sports and life for a little bit, then I got a call from another Planet Robby member Johnny Williams who is another friend of mine and we talked for a bit about my time so far here in North Carolina. Hank and I then went to the store where I grabbed a few essentials. Hank, being the MWR fan that he is, took me by the MWR shop/fun center. I held back and did not spit on the ground while I was there out of respect to the #00 team. I then went home, made my phone calls, got changed, and did some laundry. I then began to write this journal entry and I watched a bit of television before going to bed. Got to be up at 6!

Day 4: After going through my morning routine, I got to the shop around 8. Kevin was already hard at work by this time, so I asked what I could do to help out. He gave me the task of looking through the code for the online store and figuring out how to get the new items featured. I figured it out which is rare as I am not much of a code guy. That took me about 2 hours, but to this point we still haven’t figured out where to upload it. Then I worked on a few PowerPoint backgrounds for Kevin for presentations we needed to get together then we went to lunch. We went to Panera Bread, I have never been there, it was pretty good actually, very filling. We went back to the shop and I worked on some PowerPoint presentations, which was pretty neat actually. I got them done and sent them to Kevin. It was a pretty uneventful and laid back day until it was around time to leave and we had to get a last minute proposal together. Kevin worked on the PowerPoint while I got a car together and rendered it. It took a little bit but we got it done and took off for the day. Since then I have been here at Glen’s alone doing nothing but watching TV. I did some laundry, and finally got my laptop working a bit, but other than that it’s a little lonely.

Day 5: Saturday is an off day, so I got up at about 2 pm and started watching some tv. I decided to watch the Nationwide race, and then the truck race. I have to be up at 3 am and on the plane by 4:45. Tom is picking me up at 4:15. I’ll keep you guys posted if I do anything else today.

Day 6: Sunday: Went to bed at around 12:30 and had to be u at 3 and out the door by 4:10. Tom and Kevin picked me up and we made our way to the airport and were up and in the air by 5. We arrived at the airport shortly after 8 am. We then were given a rental car, Tom began to drive and we quickly noticed a loud vibration. There was a flat tire, how the lady did not notice that the tire was flat is beyond me. So we got an Impala and were off to the races so to speak. We arrived at the track about a half hour later and I registered for my Hotpass. We then made our ways to the trailer and hung out there for a bit. It was pretty neat being there with all the guys, Randy is truly a character, he is very funny. Robby stopped in as well, and chatted for a bit. Doug Richert and Kirk were in and out, it was neat seeing them up close and in person. After a bit Kevin took me for a tour around the garage and then we went to scope out filming locations for shots of the car RG wanted. We returned and brothers from Mapei were there, so Kevin and Tom were entertaining them for a bit up until the drivers meeting. We then made our way to the drivers meeting, which was pretty cool to sit in on. I mean it was pretty boring and common sense stuff, but it was a new experience for me. After the meeting we headed back for a bite to eat. That killed enough time, so we took the brothers to see pit road then we went to the stage for drivers intros. I managed the video cam and Kevin did the still shots. After that we made our way to the pitbox where I spent the entire race taking video (poorly) and listening on the scanner. It misted off and on throughout the day. The race was called as you all know with the #20 winning. If RG would of stayed out and not short pitted, he would of finished 2nd according to what the team was saying. After that we made our way back to the hauler in a downpour and then eventually to the car. Kevin and I followed RG out of the track, which was fun. Robby was driving like he wanted to get to the airport soon, and who could blame him so Kevin and I being the rear car got to see it all, it was pretty impressive. Robby capped off the trip by e-braking the rental car at the airport. We then boarded the plane; I sat right behind RG, who actually was nice enough to get me a hoagie. It’s not every day a multi-millionaire waits on a hopeless intern. I believe David Gilliland flew back with us, although I am not 100% sure. I dozed off for a bit, as did RG, and we arrived in NC about 2.5 hrs later. I watched the end of the Yankees, game, wrote this up, then went to bed. Work at 9 tomorrow. That’s an extra hour of sleep!

Day 7: Alrighty so its Monday and I went through my usual routine + an extra hour and went in around 9. It was actually nice getting the extra hour of sleep for a change. Since I’ve never had a job before, I never really understood why people hated Mondays. I can now see why, Monday was a very boring day for me. Tom gave me the task of doing some research on some statistics that they need for marketing purposes which took up most of my morning. Learned a lot of stuff from google analytics and copied it down. Then I had to do a project involving youtube and some numbers on there, so I did that before lunch. On my way to lunch Robby stopped me and introduced me into Johnny Kaiser. Many of you may know him, but for those who don’t he now is the shop foreman at RGM. We headed over to Chick-fil-a because Tom and Kevin had to be back early for a meeting. I pretty much just played around compiling the facts and figures that Tom wanted all day, and before I knew it it was time to go home. So Glen and I went home and got on the computer since I finally found a connection a few days back, so after he got done with his chores and such we decided to go to Outback to get a bite to eat. By the time we got home it was after 10 so I decided to go upstairs and play some online poker before I got a phone call from a female back home who wanted to know why I was associating myself with certain people. That conversation didn’t last long and we then moved on to other issues as apparently word has gotten out that I am willing to listen and help people with their problems. An hour later, it was time for bed.

Day 8:Tuesday was one of my most fun days from a creative standpoint but one of my hardest, as I spent the entire day dealing with an awful migraine. I actually almost dozed off because I was so bored in t he morning, but a little bit before lunch Tom came in with a list of like 8 cars he wanted done, and I was glad to help. I enjoy doing cars more than anything, so it was fun to finally do something a bit more fun than looking at code or compiling statistics. He left the color choices and schemes to me which was pretty cool and by the end of the day we were all pretty satisfied with how they turned out. I actually felt like a productive member of the team that day. Even though my head was still killing me into the night, I was painting like a madman during work hours. The worst thing you could do when you have a headache is talk on the phone for a long time, but that’s what I spent most of my night doing. Good thing I packed some Excedrin in my travel bag. I was on a conference call with my friends Joe and Matt from back home who were filling me in on the goings on. Apparently Matt has court for harassing another man, good lord, I leave for a week and already things are falling apart. He was actually on vacation and he got back on Saturday and a nice $231 citation was there waiting for him. Then we got bored after a while and I was playing around on that thing we call the internet and I found a site that lets you disguise your number as someone else’s and call people up. It was pretty cool calling people from the White House and them not knowing, god help them if they decided to call back and see who it was. Glen stepped out for some Chinese while I was on the phone and brought me some back. We enjoyed our Chinese and bullshitted about some potential Ebay purchases Glen wanted to make. I don’t think he has room for a Cup car in his house and a Rally car game, but who am I to judge? Haha, so anyway, we watched a bit of the Office which is supposed to be portraying a Scranton, PA business which is where I go to school. Before I could thouroughly enjoy the episode, my phone rang, and on the other end was a drunken female, not the same one as the previous night. This person apparently does not understand that the fact is that I no longer feel the need to help her because of my past attempts trying to help and getting stabbed in the back. But anyway, I humored her for a little bit before retiring to bed.

Day 9: On Wednesday I was immediately given a list of more cars that needed to be done which was cool, even though again I almost fell asleep staring at the computer screen. Before I knew it I had a few cars done and it was time for lunch. Kevin spent a lot of time doing website work, so it was all me on the cars end. We took a trip to Wendy’s, apparently Wendy’s down here don’t serve fish like they do at home, so I went with some kind of Spicy Chicken deal, it was pretty good. I noticed that Kevin and Tom eat a lot faster than I do, and the only reason I can figure out is because they are used to having somewhere important to go and a deadline of sorts where as I am used to having no life and no places to go, so I take my time. We got back from lunch and I finished up the rest of the cars or so I thought until Tom said we needed to make a change to each car I had done, so I did that, re-rendered them and sent them his way. That took pretty much all of today, and Kevin was still finishing website work when I left the office with Alison who was nice enough to take me home. We discussed how I began doing cars and college, and before I knew it I was home. I got home and decided I better do some laundry if I was to have some pants to wear to work tomorrow. I did some laundry, bullshitted with Joe, played some poker and waited for Glen to get home from the shop. He put another long day in, and got home around 8. We then decided to go to Taco Bell, where I had never been before for some food. I actually enjoyed it, I was surprised at how good it tasted. Glen had to run to Charlotte so I’m here alone at the moment so I figured I’d blog for a bit in-between phone calls from home. Yankees won again, they are on a roll. Anyway, I better get some sleep as Kevin is going to be flying out tomorrow morning and I will be alone in the office. Should be an eventful day.

Day 10 -Thursday: Today was my first day alone in the office without Kevin. Kevin is originally from Florida so he got two days off so he could go back and see his family and friends. I sat down and got right to work on some cars Tom wanted done. As I was doing that, Tom introduced me to Joe Parsons who is part of the Marketing Department at RGM. I believe he used to be work with Monster but don’t quote me on that. I spent the majority of the morning working on those cars, with a stop in-between to help Tom fix up a powerpoint presentation. After all that it was lunch time so Tom, Joe and I went to Quizzno’s for some hoagies. I got an Italian hoagie which was pretty good, so after a brief discussion about gambling, which we will come back to later on, it was back to the office. I spent the remainder of the day working on some custom cars just so they’d have a few looks when they showed them off. It may sound like I was slacking off all day but those cars were a lot of work, many of the logos took a whole bunch of time. After all that it was time to close up shop and head home, so Tom and I hopped in his truck and we were on our way. On the way home, Tom and I encountered a whole bunch of traffic so we discussed the great game of poker. Apparently Tom and I both love the game and the strategy involved in playing it. Tom was telling me about some bad beats and bluffs that he has seen and been a part of. I really enjoyed this conversation and I learned a lot which should help me when I get home and can take part in my usual home game. To be honest, this poker conversation kind of pissed me off as Tom got me all fired up about playing cards and I had no one to play with. How dare you play with my gambling addiction Tom! Haha. Anyway, We made it home after some traffic and I immediately went and registered for the 7:30 poker tourney on playersonly. All the poker talk must of got me fired up, because I finished 6th out of 4000 people. The sad part was that only the top 5 advanced. I advanced once before into the Sunday Tourney for all the marbles and finished like 100 spots away from a few grand. So maybe sooner or later I’ll get lucky to get back in there. During my poker adventures, I texted my buddy Hank to take me grocery shopping as I was going to be alone for 2 days and needed some rations. Even someone as fat as I am needs to eat something once and a while, but Hank was still in Florida after receiving some major sunburn, so I had to go without any sort of rations on Thursday. I watched some Law and Order until retiring to bed. I actually fell asleep before the 12:30 poker tourney which sucks, but I knew I had more important things in the morning.

Friday: Friday was day 2 in the office alone and instead of bringing my laptop in I just decided to work on Kevin’s computer. My laptop (well it’s not really mine, I borrowed it from my Aunt for this trip) does not have Autodesk 3d Studio Max 9 on it, which is the program I installed on the computers in Kevin’s office at RGM to render the cars on it, so it was pretty useless having. I began working on another of those custom cars when Joe walked in and wanted a car done. He gave me some design concepts and color schemes which were out of the ordinary from what we usually do but I was glad to try something new out and got those cars done. I also did 2 more designs for that car that were with the swoosh design which looked a lot better. Sometimes basic is beautiful. For lunch they ordered Wendy’s and brought it in. I had that Spicy Chicken deal I had a few days before. Tom and Joe invited me in Tom’s office during lunch and I learned a few marketing things while in there. After I ate, I got out of their hair and returned to the office to update the Mapei car, that’s not a secret of any sorts, I was just fixing the Mapei car from the Phoenix version to the Daytona version in my files so I would have it for my own use. We actually got out of work at 2pm that day due to Saturday being the 4th of July. I’ll certainly take the extra 3 hrs or so off. Before we left I informed Tom that I needed to go shopping so he agreed to take me after giving a young Robby fan a shop tour. We stopped by the market and I grabbed some sandwich stuff, some chips, and some cookies. A lot of people assume just because I am so fat I eat a lot, which is not the case. I’ve lived 2 weeks on 2 meals a day, and a few days on cereal alone. I got fat because for years and years I hung around with lazy people, who didn’t want to do anything but sit on their asses. I have always been a guy who enjoyed being active and playing sports. In the past year I have become closer with those friends of mine and I have become much more active and lost (before I left) 35 pounds. I would guess I lost a few more while I was down here, but I cannot wait to get back to PA and start playing basketball and baseball with my amigos again. So that was a bit of a rant, but anyway, I returned home after shopping and watched Nationwide qualifying, and the Nationwide race before getting like 12 hours of sleep for Saturday as I knew it was going to be a long and hot day.

Saturday: Happy 4th of July everyone! I got up and immediately my gambling addiction took the best of me so I decided to place a few bets on some baseball games on centsports.com . That site is just a little site that lets you bet on games for free but pays you if you can accumulate over 20 bucks after starting with only $.10 . I was up to about $2.50 after playing for about 2 weeks, and I was winning my games at a 65% clip. I figured I would take 5 games for $.50 each, and if I won my usual 3/5 I would make a buck. We’ll come back to that later. Anyway, Tom picked me up after I showered and grabbed a quick sandwich and we headed to the airport and boarded the plane. We were one of the first ones there. The flight was a bit bumpy for some reason, which made me kind of nervous as I had never experienced such a ride before. The warning signals going off in the cockpit were a bit much, but soon enough we arrived in Daytona. We got off the plane (holy shit, its hot) and made our way to the golf carts and rode to the track. That was a pretty crazy ride and I was holding on for dear life as the tunnel was very steep. We made our way into the garage area and Jenna took me to the motorcoach lot to meet up with Anne(that might be the wrong spelling) who took me to credentials which was really far away from the track. Let me just say my hotpass was a bit colder than I expected and I had to be very 007 like at the track. I spent some time chilling around the hauler until the guys from Mapei came. There were a few of them which was really cool considering I actually designed (well put together) their Mapei car. I learned from them that Mapei is actually an acronym in Italian for Auxiliary Materials for Construction and Industry. I joined in when Tom and Kevin took the Mapei guys on a tour around the garage and pit road. They watched the pitbox get set up and got a picture taken near the pitbox and car before having one taken with Robby. Robby met the Mapei guys and autographed their hats and shirts and Robby told them about his ride in the back RP race strategy. Kevin and I then went to do some photography things, well Kevin went to do them , I just held his stuff. Kevin told me he had designed the 44 car before he left Petty Enterprises, so it was my car #7 vs his car #44 during the race. Just kidding of course, but Kevin and I both know that the better driver was in the #7 and the better looking car was the #7. So we the did the prerace ceremonies and I hung out the in the #7 pits all night long. Robby did a good job staying in the back avoiding trouble. To me the car seemed pretty good, but Robby hated it, and they adjusted a shock and had a right front tire issue where the tire chorded and wrapped itself around something inside the fender. Robby came in for tires a few times late was making some moves to move up in the field but could get no help from anyone. Robby was pretty good going right through the middle and it was fun to watch. It’s a shame Robby didn’t get any help, he probably would of finished much higher, but oh well, that’s the way the ball bounces. After the race, and I must mentioned this, they showed me what Tom calls, the glamorous side of NASCAR, by that he means, the LOOOOONG walk to the airport. Yes, you know that ride I got in the golf cart from the airport to the track, well that was no more, and we had to walk, just like everyone else. That was quite a walk and we were some of the first ones on the plane, which was good because I was able to get a single seat. The flight was a lot less bumpy this time and we returned home at about 3 am, which was like an hour and a half flight. I then decided, much to my disappointment to check how my bets had turned out. Well, lucky me, I now have ZERO money in my account. All 5 of my picks lost. I was a bit pissed off so I surfed the net for a bit and talked to some of my racing league members before retiring for the night.

Sunday: Sunday is an off day, woo! Last night I put 10 cents on the Mariners +235 on the money line against the Red Sox going for the sweep. I was looking good for most of the day until the Mariners decided to blow it and lose the game and more of the money. At least my Yankees won, but I didn’t bet on them, so that really does me no good. I’m going to put some money on the ESPN game tonight, although I don’t know which team to take, I’ll probably just close my eyes and click one of them. Work tomorrow at 10am. My last 3 days at RGM. 