Kids of all ages were beaming in Neon Garage

There was this moment Sunday morning at the Kobalt Tools 400 that they could have made into a TV commercial, it was so darn cute.

It was right after the drivers' meeting, which is the official part where all the drivers and their crew chiefs formally get the rules of the day. No speeding on pit road, watch out for the safety guys, stuff like that.

For the first time ever, this meeting was held in public. It was held in the Neon Garage at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is sort of like the midway at a carnival.

Nachos and beer, a whole bunch of restrooms, windows into the garages where the race cars are being prepared to get on out to the track and do their thing.

Which, by the way, they did safely on Sunday. There were minor bumps and bruises, like there always are, but no one was hurt. NASCAR said 150,000 fans were on hand to watch Tony Stewart win the race, fighting off Jimmie Johnson's efforts on the last lap.

Las Vegans Kurt and Kyle Busch both ran into tire trouble late in the race and weren't factors.

So anyway, they held this event, the public drivers' meeting, and a few hundred people got to see it. "There's Jimmie," they'd whisper when Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevy, walked in. "There's Jeff. There's Tony."

When the meeting was over, the drivers and the crew chiefs and a few celebrities -- Sarah Palin, for example -- exited by walking down a path that had been cut through the fans.

People crowded around, including mom Diana, dad Ed, and kids Eddie, 15, Megan, 10, and Joey, 7, a family from Henderson. They all wore Jeff Gordon gear. They're huge fans of the No. 24. Have been for as long as they can remember.

But they like everybody, really. The kids, especially.

"Trevor! Trevor! Can you sign this?" the youngest boy, Joey, called out.

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 21 Ford, stopped and gave Joey an autograph.

"Mark! Mark! Can you sign this?"

Mark Martin, who drives the No. 55 Toyota, did the same.

"What do you say?" Mom prodded.

"Thank you," Joey said.

Then Pia Toscano, who was a contestant on "American Idol" last year and was set to sing the national anthem on Sunday, slapped her signature down, too.

The kids were really having a blast. Except. They still didn't get Gordon's autograph. They've been chasing it for 11 years now. Eddie, the 15-year-old, looked disappointed, but no one had anything bad to say at all.

"I got his high-five," said Megan, who was absolutely beaming about it.

There was a lot of that going around, the beaming and the happiness.

Like these guys who were sitting in the back of a GMC pickup behind the fence in Turn 4, pretty much right behind Johnson's pit.

"We've been up in the stands before," said Patrick Camp, a fan of the No. 17 Ford of Matt Kenseth. "I won't be doing that again."

Camp and his friends had some of the best seats in the house. Probably not as good as the throngs on top of their RVs, which were lined up by the dozens in the infield.

And probably not as good as the guy who spent his time before the race painting the lug nuts on Brad Keselowski's wheels bright pink. The wheels on the No. 2 Dodge are bright yellow, and so are the lug nuts.

"Can't see that yellow on yellow," the crew member said.

Keselowski, it should be noted, was doing very well in the race until the last restart with just a few laps to go, when his car crapped out. Word was, it was a fuel pump issue, nothing to do with the lug nuts.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307