Sunday at the Glen
WATKINS GLEN -- It's race day at Watkins Glen International, where it pays to beat the traffic and get here early.
8:28 a.m. We're in the media center after a smooth drive up from Route 414 from Corning, up Bronson Hill road and through Gate Two. After covering this race for more than 10 years, knowing the fastest ways to get to the track are almost as important as knowing what's going on on the track. There are a lot of people coming to this village for the race, there aren't many roads in and there isn't an interstate within at least 20 miles. But if you leave a little time and study a map, you'll get here just fine.
My spotters back in Buffalo told me it rained for much of the day yesterday, and that rain must have come through the Finger Lakes overnight. The pavement around the road course is wet and some of the skies are grey, but it isn't raining and there are some patches of sun. That's a 50-50 report, and that's what the forecast calls for: a 50 percent chance of rain today. Hopefully things will clear up.
9:38 a.m. Who's going to win today? Take our poll and tell us why. I've gotta think about my answer for a bit.
10:14 a.m. Keeping busy on the blog -- there's now more from Kevin Everett at the BillBoard blog.
10:26 a.m. Quick weather update, another of the 50-50 variety: Larry Ott had to don a sweatshirt about a half hour ago as some rain was coming down, but he and I were just outside and there were sunny skies.
10:42 a.m. The official prerace schedule has been handed out and the green flag is scheduled to fly at 2:20 p.m. The flyover, which happens at the end of the national anthem, is one of the coolest things to experience at a race -- today's is being done by the Niagara Falls Air Force Base.
12:58 p.m. Just back from my annual Sunday walk through the merchandising area, a fun time-killer on race day to get souvenirs and gifts for friends and family. The temporary mall is also an unofficial popularity gauge. Most drivers have one hauler, while some have shared space on a team truck. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had two haulers, both mobbed with people (I guess there are a total of seven Junior haulers on the grounds). One of Junior's was next to two others that had long lines: Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Kyle Busch's truck had a good crowd as well. Ghost-towns included, surprisingly, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.
I got a program -- more for the diecast car that comes with it, marked with an '08 for this year's race. It's cool to have a car from each race. Along those lines, I headed to Ryan Newman's trailer to see if they had a "raced version" of his Daytona 500 winner, but it was sold out. I have the raced version of every Daytona 500 I've covered; looks like I'll have to order it online.
Weather report: nothing 50-50 here -- it is pretty spectacular at the moment. Sunny skies have made for great views of the hills surrounding the track, which lies high above the southern tip of Seneca Lake.
1:38 p.m. The drivers are being introduced and are riding around the track in the back of pickup trucks. We're getting there. Larry and I are contemplating our picks for who will win the race. We'll have those as the live blog begins before the race.
---Keith McShea
