{"id":8496,"date":"2020-10-04T19:34:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T23:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=8496"},"modified":"2022-07-22T12:10:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T16:10:28","slug":"white-zone-its-good-to-be-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2020\/10\/04\/white-zone-its-good-to-be-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The White Zone: It&#8217;s good to be back at Talladega"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>TALLADEGA, Ala. &#8212;<\/strong> I turned left onto Speedway Boulevard and drove east towards Talladega Superspeedway. About a mile from the main entrance, I came upon a backlogged line of vehicles.\u00a0After a few minutes, it crept forward.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I turned right at the main entrance and went to cover my first NASCAR Cup Series race in over two years.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I bid everyone good morning from @TalladegaSuperS for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/YellaWood500?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#YellaWood500<\/a> race day!<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the first <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NASCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series race that I\u2019ve worked (on-site) in over two years! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3zmBhVuvEA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/3zmBhVuvEA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tucker White (@TuckerWhite94) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TuckerWhite94\/status\/1312763294206263297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As I passed the time before the drop of the green flag, I took in the sights and sounds.<\/p>\n<p>I took in the fans strolling up and down the grandstands of Talladega. Sunday&#8217;s YellaWood 500 was the only race this weekend that fans were allowed to attend.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s not a capacity crowd at @TalladegaSuperS, but damn does it feel great to work an event with race fans, again!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NASCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NASCAR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NsIe7YUJUD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NsIe7YUJUD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tucker White (@TuckerWhite94) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TuckerWhite94\/status\/1312794522645037057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I took in\u00a0<strong>Jimmie Johnson<\/strong>&#8216;s Daytona 500 winning car from 2006 that was on display in the concourse.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JimmieJohnson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@JimmieJohnson<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Daytona500?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Daytona500<\/a> winning car from 2006 is on display here at @TalladegaSuperS.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NASCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NASCAR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qapVZrPvWk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/qapVZrPvWk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tucker White (@TuckerWhite94) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TuckerWhite94\/status\/1312795285215731712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And I took in crews pushing their driver&#8217;s car onto the grid.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the stuff that I&#8217;ve missed so much in <a href=\"https:\/\/tuckerwhiteblog.wordpress.com\/2019\/06\/05\/how-ive-gone-about-giving-criticism-volume-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the last two years away from the track<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, I&#8217;ve missed the comradery with my fellow beat writers.<\/p>\n<p>For the Cup Series race, we organized a friendly little pool on who wins. I picked\u00a0<strong>Brad Keselowski<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Then the race went green, and didn&#8217;t make it a lap before a wreck happened.<\/p>\n<p>As the laps clicked by, I watched fans jump out of their seats and wave their hats at their favorite drivers. Two men &#8212; one in a red, white and blue\u00a0<strong>Kevin Harvick<\/strong> shirt, pounding, and the other in a\u00a0<strong>Chase Elliott<\/strong> shirt &#8212; pounded back cans of Budweiser and Michelob Ultra.<\/p>\n<p>One woman in an orange\u00a0<strong>Martin Truex Jr.<\/strong> shirt flashed her cap at him, every time he passed by her seat in the tri-oval.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, this isn&#8217;t unusual. But I&#8217;ll take any semblance of normalcy in this pandemic era. That includes the aforementioned Harvick fan flipping off\u00a0<strong>Kyle Busch<\/strong> when he drove by.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NASCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NASCAR<\/a> fans go hard. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CRPRXOekFn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/CRPRXOekFn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Niemeyer (@adamniemeyer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adamniemeyer\/status\/1312844334149128192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>During the red flag for a multi-car wreck at the start\/finish line, I canvased the concourse to see what the fans were doing.<\/p>\n<p>Some smoked. Some went to pee. Others got in line for the concession stands.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">During a red flag, what do fans do? Head for the food stands, of course! Here was the line for one.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NASCAR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NASCAR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3lXbpVbWSb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/3lXbpVbWSb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tucker White (@TuckerWhite94) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TuckerWhite94\/status\/1312854880667787270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The timing of the final caution, prior to overtime, turned the run to the finish into a fuel mileage race.<\/p>\n<p>Then it turned into a shitshow, complete with controversy on the final lap (a Talladega tradition).<\/p>\n<p>When all was said and done, trails of speedy-dry laid strewn on the track in Turn 4, along with the tire marks from the multiple wrecks at the start\/finish line.<\/p>\n<p>As the waning Sunlight coated the clouds above the track in hues of warm colors, mixed in with blue shading, and haulers departed Talladega, one thought crossed my mind.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s good to be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TALLADEGA, Ala. &#8212; I turned left onto Speedway Boulevard and drove east towards Talladega Superspeedway. About a mile from the main entrance, I came upon a backlogged line of vehicles.\u00a0After a few minutes, it crept forward. Finally, I turned right at the main entrance and went to cover my first NASCAR Cup Series race in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3353,"featured_media":8505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,1664],"tags":[14,1269,371,1300,1325,1435],"class_list":["post-8496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nascar","category-nascar-cup-series","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-2020","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-talladega-superspeedway","tag-the-white-zone","tag-yellawood-500"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}