From Argentina to Bristol: A road trip to remember

Editor's note: Dave Rodman traveled with Marcos di Palma from Daytona Beach, Fla., to Bristol to share his NASCAR experience. Rodman filed updates throughout the weekend for NASCAR.COM.

Sunday

Marcos di Palma's last day at Bristol Motor Speedway started Sunday morning with a handshake from fellow South American racing star Juan Montoya and ended with a shriek of joy 10 hours later when his RV cleared the track property -- ahead of about 120,000 other people.

But the five-day trip to Bristol won't be his last NASCAR outing -- definitely not.

If Jimmie Johnson believes in good luck charms, astute Cup fans might see Argentine road racer di Palma at Martinsville Speedway this weekend. Di Palma, 37, a long-time NASCAR observer, attended his first race as a fan, at Bristol.

Marcos di Palma got pictures with every Hendrick car, truck and almost every driver in his Bristol visit.

Johnson might consider getting di Palma another plane ticket because, six hours after shaking di Palma's hand on the morning of his first Cup race, Johnson won the Food City 500 -- Johnson's first Cup victory in 17 Bristol starts.

OK, so di Palma has conflicting dates with his Top Race series in Argentina, where six manufacturer's nameplates compete on a variety of road courses in cars that are a cross between Sprint Cup and Australia's V8 Supercars.

But for sure, Johnson might consider lobbying di Palma to come to Michigan in mid-June -- the next venue where the four-time defending Cup champion Johnson's never won in his career.

Di Palma already has a trip to Daytona penciled in for mid-summer, one of possibly three or four race trips he might make. The proverbial floodgates might have been opened.

The weekend at Bristol has gotten di Palma's interest. He and his Argentine traveling buddy, racer/businessman Daniel Dopazo -- who's lived in Miami for 17 years -- made inquiries about the cost to do a season of Nationwide Series racing or at least a test and race weekend in either Nationwide or Cup.

"To drive [in NASCAR], for sure, not at the Cup level -- but I would like to test myself in the Nationwide Series to see how is my driving level," said di Palma, who's won 11 times in Argentina's national series, plus 28 qualifying race wins that are shorter versions of Daytona Speedweeks' Gatorade Duel 150s.

"I'm sure I won't win a race, but with the appropriate practice I believe I could be between 20-30. Driving a Cup car I would crash it at the pit exit -- I would be 45th of the 43 [starters]!"

Di Palma spent the weekend in genial self-deprecation, but he's competed at a high level in Argentina for 15 years. And after the pre-race drivers' meeting ended, Johnson -- just being likeable old Jimmie Johnson -- had lingered in the back of the room, talking to veteran motorsports photographer Ernie Masche. It was just the moment di Palma, who had stood back while the jam-packed room emptied, needed.

A mutual acquaintance introduced them and di Palma, who'd spent the weekend rightfully proclaiming his lack of English-speaking skills -- though he learned more and more by the day -- wished Johnson good luck in the race.

He then politely asked if he could get a picture from his digital camera with the champ, who di Palma had said earlier in the weekend was one of his four favorites -- coincidentally all Hendrick Motorsports drivers -- in NASCAR.

Di Palma left the room, for the last time in his three days at Bristol, not believing his good fortune. He'd had pictures made with or around all four Hendrick cars, trucks and pit boxes and met several members of three of the four teams.

The day before, di Palma was headed for the tunnel out of Bristol's infield when Johnson had hurried in, on his way to practice.

Di Palma, who earlier Saturday had met the man who drives the same car number as he does, Mark Martin, said he'd stared at Johnson as he walked away, "almost hypnotized" at being so close to one of his idols.

Now, this was spoken by a guy who can't walk the streets of his home city in Argentina without being hit upon by fans wanting an autograph, a photo or a touch. At his races, an Argentine journalist said di Palma's pit stall is flooded "with 100 people, every race."

Sunday was the perfect cap to di Palma's whirlwind weekend, which started with an overnight flight from Buenos Aires last Wednesday, a mini-bike shopping expedition for his four-year-old son Luis on Thursday morning in Miami and then an RV ride to Daytona Beach, Fla., with Dopazo.

On Sunday, di Palma walked from the RV camping lot on Bristol's "Thunder Valley" drag strip, about a mile to the infield, where a meeting had been arranged with Montoya.

While waiting for the Colombian, whose resume includes a championship stint -- including an Indianapolis 500 victory -- in Indy cars and Formula One, but also time in Indy Lights in the mid-1990s -- di Palma met Boris Said, the noted road racer who's attempting his first full season in NASCAR.

Luis found a car he could probably wheel around the Bristol track -- a Legends car.

Said's affinity for racing in Mexico City is well-known, but it turned out his Spanish skills were "poquito," or very little -- limited to "carne asada, por favor" -- a food order, more than likely at a sidewalk vendor.

"The first thing we do was meeting Juan Montoya," di Palma said. "No doubt he's a great person, and he surprised me when I introduce myself -- telling me that he knows my family and he raced against my older brother Jose Luis, in Indy Lights on the streets of Miami in 1994."

Di Palma also carried a message from Argentinian Brian Smith, who races in Top Race and is Montoya's good friend. Di Palma obviously launched into a description of their latest race, complete with body language and many wild hand gestures.

"We have a friend in common, Brian Smith, who raced in Europe and now competes with me at the Top Race series," di Palma said. "We talk more than 10 minutes about NASCAR, oval racing and budgets, before Juan had to go into his pre-race team meeting."

After leaving Montoya's hauler, di Palma walked down pit road, where he was introduced to David Ragan. The meeting lasted several minutes, with Ragan as patient and polite as he always is but also grinning widely at the first words out of di Palma's mouth as they shook hands.

"No. 6 -- UPS," di Palma said, laughing. "I'm sorry, no English."

The morning got better for di Palma, who spent the entire visit wide-eyed, but unable to go into any depth of communication. That changed when he spent about 15 minutes with GM engineer Alba Colon, a native of Puerto Rico who'd been following di Palma's travelogue on NASCAR.COM but hadn't caught sight of him until she was introduced in the Sprint Cup inspection area before the drivers' meeting.

"I'd been following his story, and it seemed wonderful that he's able to be here," Colon said. "I hadn't realized Marcos had such a big history with Chevrolet, for whom he won most of his races. He was amazed at the support that Chevrolet gives to racers in this country, not only technical support, but also in marketing and public relations.

"Marcos said it's not that way in Argentina, so I'll look forward to staying in touch with him in the future."

"It was nice I could meet [team owner] Felix Sabates and Alba," di Palma said of his brief chat inside the drivers' meeting with Sabates, co-owner of Montoya's team. "At least I could find more people who speak Spanish at the NASCAR garage. Alba gave me more than 10 minutes and explained to me all that GM does in racing in the United States -- a big effort to support their brand."

Bristol's drivers' and crew chiefs' meetings are held in a room that doubles as a photographers' work room and a work area for team public relations representatives. For the meeting, it was packed, and di Palma was busy exercising his miniature digital/video camera.

He met Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth at the back of the meeting room, where we stood behind the back row of chairs. Kenseth had laughed out loud when he was told that di Palma, who upon meeting the former Cup champ had immediately apologized, saying "no English," but when he'd seen Kenseth ride by in a golf cart on his way to a race morning appearance, had said "he practiced second-best Friday."

Di Palma might not speak fluently, but he reads just fine and retains millions.

"I had the opportunity to be at the drivers' meeting and it was incredible," di Palma said. "I met Clint Bowyer and Matt [Kenseth] and Mark Martin's crew chief Alan Gustafson. I was standing between Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. What surprised me was how many people were at the drivers' meeting, because we are used to having the drivers' meetings in Argentina just with the drivers and some officials.

"This was a meeting with not just the 43 drivers, but crew chiefs, officials and special guests, so that was something unusual for me."

Marcos di Palma and Juan Montoya talk racing -- with words and motions.

When he left the meeting, di Palma's first concern was to go back to the RV and prepare "Luisito" for his first Cup race. But on the way out of the tunnel, he met multi-talented Robby Gordon, who despite racing in the top-10 in the past two Dakar Rally races, claims only a poquito of Spanish language skills.

They arranged to discuss, by e-mail and through intermediaries, a possible Dakar effort by the Argentine.

And with the exception of the race itself, di Palma's Bristol adventure had begun its wind-down. The longer people walk this earth, the more they find it becomes about the size of a pea, and in one of the most exquisite ironies of the weekend, on Sunday morning di Palma had met Wes Ramey, Bristol's PR manager, in the track's infield media center.

Ramey, in the midst of a very busy weekend, had specifically requested the meeting, and when di Palma came into the room Ramey, who was behind the media center's counter, motioned to di Palma to come back to see his laptop. With two keystrokes, Ramey opened the "Top Race" video game -- an online racing simulation.

"Before you ever came here, I knew who you were -- I had raced you," Ramey said as di Palma grinned, wider and wider. "When I first downloaded this game, it was all in Spanish, and I had to stumble through it [flicking a button]. Now, you can play in English, but it's very cool."

And so was the race for di Palma, who was perched high above Turn 2.

"We have seats at Turn 2 but in Bristol you can see all the track from almost anywhere," di Palma said. "During the race I could see [Denny] Hamlin's and Kyle Busch's crashes -- just right in front of us."

Di Palma watches NASCAR in Argentina on SPEED Latin America and learned something first-hand about American fans Sunday, when Busch had a tire problem and slapped into the wall.

"About Kyle, I could feel how the people don't love him," di Palma said. "It seemed that all were happy with his crash. I'm not his fan, but I would not like to be in his shoes with all the people against him. I was a little sad about that."

Colombian journalist Diego Mejia, who works for SPEED Latin America among other outlets, had followed di Palma's trip with interest, and spoke to the Argentine by phone on the RV trip south after the race. He relayed a funny comment di Palma had made -- one of dozens he'd unleashed all weekend, though in a limited number of syllables.

In an e-mail, Mejia said di Palma had told him, in their phone call, that "there were two four-year-old Argentines in the stands at Bristol -- Luisito and myself."

"Bristol always was something special and strange for me," di Palma had said earlier in the weekend. "It seems to be like a football or soccer stadium with a race track inside and the view of so much people so close to the action I believe it's impossible to have anywhere else in the world.

"This year I have a little less work than in the previous years. I'm only racing the Top Race series with 12 races per year. Last year I was racing also at the Turismo Carretera series that has 16 races, so combined I was 28 weekends on the road.

"Now I'm more relaxed so I want to go to the USA not only to Bristol, but I'm planning to attend the July race at Daytona and maybe another couple of races during 2010, maybe Homestead and another one.

"Here in South America the only way we have to watch NASCAR is through SPEED Latin America. Also I read everything I can at NASCAR.COM en Espanol during the week. Some friends, racing drivers too, don't understand how I can spend four hours watching TV during a free Sunday, instead of going out with my family and kids -- but NASCAR is stronger.

Marcos and Luis took in all the in Bristol from their seats high in Turn 2 -- an experience neither one will ever forget.

"When I'm not at home I record the races and watch them entirely Monday or Tuesday at home."

But Sunday, di Palma was there, and in the end could hardly believe the experience.

"The show, the sound -- all what we lived [Sunday] was incredible and unforgettable," di Palma said. "I hope to have the chance to return soon and why not, to try to at least have the chance to test a NASCAR car in the future."

In the end, leaving Bristol was as much of a race as the race itself. Dopazo -- who had said "my trip is complete" on Saturday after sitting in Bristol's Turn 4 Waltrip Grandstand watching 300 laps of Nationwide Series action -- and I headed back to the RV at Lap 300, to prepare to leave. When we tried to leave the lot, Bristol employees had started inserting stakes into the exit lanes, which are blocked for an hour after the race.

Dopazo, a quick learner, pulled a stake and we were on the access road. When we reached the lot outside the infield tunnel, under a blessed caution period, a call was made to di Palma, who said Luis was having a hamburger.

Even waiting for that, which was the perfect race track experience to the end, the RV made it out of the property with about 100 laps to go in the race. We were on the road fronting BMS on the way to Johnson City, Tenn., and a trip to Daytona Beach, Fla., that would take less than 10 hours to complete -- including two gas stops and a sit-down dinner.

We were well into North Carolina when the race ended -- with us in the midst of a horrific downpour.

And about seven hours later, the cascading rain had nothing on the emotion that poured out when four individuals who were total strangers four days before, parted at a brilliantly-lit Shell station across from Daytona International Speedway.

"Adios mi amigos, nos veremos mas tarde." I only hope "seeing them later," isn't too much later. (Continued)