Brace yourself, this is a long one…it was a fabulous weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway. The highlight of my weekend, of course, was meeting Boris Said.

All in all, I felt much more comfortable with things than the first time I came in June. A lot of the same faces and this time I knew where I could and couldn't go. I learned this time around that I have to be careful vocalizing my happiness about drivers making the field (Boris).

The race: I was really glad to see Clint Bowyer win his first Cup race. He dominated that entire race.

A journalist friend of mine asked me why I don’t blog during the race and immediately following the race. To me, it would be like a die-hard Patriots fan watching a game and having someone talk in their ear. But in this case, I’m a die-hard NASCAR fan and I just can’t seem to focus or concentrate on anything but the race. I do think that journalists are trained to do so but I am not.

And the reason I don’t blog after the race? Well after waking up at 4 a.m., I was completely beat. Immediately after the race the top three finishers head to the media center for questions from the media. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were there when I walked in after making my way down from the press box.

That had to be the funniest interviewing session ever. OK, I’m going to say it …this weekend, I may have actually turned a corner and now might like Tony Stewart. He is a wise-ass to the media, but he is REALLY funny about it. And in this post-race interview session, he and Gordon just played off one another. It was the best. I'm going to try to get the audio so you can hear it for yourself.

The traffic: Thursday, Friday and Saturday is relatively smooth sailing in and out of the track. The traffic is completely dealable. Sunday is a different story. I know I told you that I arrived at the track on Sunday morning, dark and early, at 5:30 a.m. and even at that hour, there was already a bit of traffic. After the race is a different story.

I put my “patience cap” on and left the media center at around 7 p.m. to make my way back to my hotel room in Manchester. (The tunnel access to the media center is closed for an hour after the completion of the race) I breezed out of the infield with hardly any traffic and then I hit Route 106. It was almost at a complete stop. I thought there had to have been a wreck somewhere.

I give New Hampshire a ton of credit. They shut that road down to through traffic. The entire road becomes a 3- or 4-lane road leaving the racetrack. It does move along, just slow. Now if only they could do something about those impatient idiots who are granted a drivers license.

There was a wreck on I-93 South. So what normally would take about 40 minutes to get back to the hotel room took 2 hours because (and I’m assuming) someone was a moron and wasn’t paying attention.

It's going to be real hard to focus on my other duties at work on Tuesday. I am already feeling like I am ready to go to another race and see what other tracks look like and how they operate and all that. I think I may be turning into an addict.

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