This post is really about everything that I forgot. It wasn’t until I started unpacking that I realized I’d forgotten my evening bag/clutch. This was important because there was no way I could carry everything I’d need for the Awards Ceremony without a bag and taking my regular purse would have been ridiculous.
2011 Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony centerpiece
So the morning of the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony my first order of business was to pick up my ticket to the banquet and then go shopping for a new clutch purse and a necklace that I’d failed to purchase before I came to Vegas. I went to the registration desk at the Wynn to pick up my ticket to the awards ceremony but they couldn’t find my name. I had a small freak out in my head, quickly running through all of the scenarios that involved not actually being inside the ballroom for the banquet. I could still do the red carpet stuff, I had my media credentials for that, and could still hang in the media workroom where the drivers would go after they gave their speeches. So it wasn’t a horrible, horrible thing if I didn’t get my ticket.

However, I still tried to find it. I called the person who sent me the invite and she said my ticket should be there. So then I asked them if maybe they transposed my name and had my first name listed as my LAST. And lo and behold that’s where my ticket was. Yay, crisis averted! 🙂

Inside of the ticket envelope is the actual ticket that tells you your table number and then there’s a VIP pass to Tryst, the club inside the Wynn. There wasn’t anything else. What else could have been in there? Well, there was the Champion’s party being held at Studio 54 inside MGM Grand right after the awards ceremony was over and in order to get into that party you needed a bracelet. My envelope didn’t contain a bracelet.

🙁

So no party for me. Which sucked. So please hold me to the following statement next year: I am NOT buying a new dress for the awards ceremony next year, even if it’s marked down! It feels so pointless to spend any kind of money on an outfit I’m only going to wear for a few hours for myself. It makes no sense.

I told you guys that I planned on doing that this year, just wear the same dress I wore last year with different accessories, but then I went to BCBG and found this beautiful purple/pink/blue print strapless dress and decided to buy it.

Anyway, with my ticket in hand I went across the street to the Fashion Show Mall where I found a pretty multi-colored necklace that matched my dress perfectly at Macy’s and a black clutch from White House / Black Market.

Then I hightailed it over to the MGM Grand for coffee with Lisa and Rachel from Edelmen PR. It was so nice to hang out with them at Starbucks and talk about EVERYTHING, including the crazy Dale Earnhardt Jr. photo I took the day before. 🙂

After coffee with the ladies I hung out at the Cosmopolitan, did a little penny slot play, grabbed lunch from China Poblano and then went down to the hotel’s salon to get my makeup done. Rochelle did my makeup and she was awesome. I told her what I wanted and she made it happen just the way I’d imagined it in my head. My eyebrows looked amazing, I wish she could do my makeup everyday. 🙂

Then I went back to my room, did my hair (followed these instructions from The Beauty Department) and got dressed. In my haste to get ready I realized I had forgotten my ticket to the banquet as I got out of my cab at the Wynn. I was, like, 80% sure that my table number was 109. So I just went with that. Because I hadn’t forgotten my media credential I was able to get in and hang out on the red carpet. Last year this scenario was reversed, I’d forgotten my credential and remembered my ticket. Next year I’m making a LIST for everything and checking it like 5 times before I go anywhere.

I found a spot to take pictures on the red carpet, landing between Michael Myers of Queers4Gears and all three Miss Sprint Cup’s who were taking turns doing interviews for NASCAR.com. I loved Miss Sprint Cup Jaclyn Roney’s dress and told her as much, plus showed her my new clutch that matched her dress better than it did mine. Her full black skirt was decked out with a bunch of rosettes, the same as my clutch.

At one point I went into the Sprint lounge to have my picture taken on the red carpet they recreated especially for banquet attendees. They print out your picture right there and you take it with you. Well I had my picture taken solely for the purpose of showing you guys but that’s not going to happen. More on that later.

I went back to the “real” red carpet and waited for people to arrive. Business started picking up after Reba and 16-year-old country artist Ella Mae Bowen showed up, including Matt & Katie Kenseth, Ryan & Krissie Newman, Brad Keselowski, Kevin & DeLana Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. with his girlfriend Amy Reimann. The clock was counting down above our heads and I headed in with about 10 minutes to go before the ceremony started.


Reba

Reba

Krissie & Ryan Newman

Krissie & Ryan Newman

Miss Sprint Cup

Miss Sprint Cup Kim Coon, Jaclyn Roney, and Monica Palumbo

Tricia and Steve Letarte

Tricia & Steve Letarte

Kurt Busch and Patricia Driscoll

Kurt Busch and Patricia Driscoll

Katie & Matt Kenseth

Katie & Matt Kenseth (Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Jimmie & Chandra Johnson

Jimmie & Chandra Johnson (Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Jersey Boys

The cast of Jersey Boys

DeLana & Kevin Harvick

DeLana & Kevin Harvick

Jordan Fish and Denny Hamlin

Jordan Fish and Denny Hamlin

Dale Earnhardt Jr & Amy Reimann

Dale Earnhardt Jr & Amy Reimann

Brad Keselowski

Brad Keselowski

Carl & Kate Edwards chatting with Darian & Yolanda Grubb

Carl & Kate Edwards chatting with Darian & Yolanda Grubb


I went to table 109 and sat down. It was almost completely full of NASCAR officials and their significant others. I knew it wasn’t the right table and my suspicion was confirmed when more officials showed up and no seats were available for them. So I got outta there and found some NASCAR PR people and asked if anyone had a list of who was supposed to be at what table. After some asking around I was directed to the registration desk from that morning and they let me know my table was 102! Not 109! 🙂

Whew! But here’s the thing, in the 5 minutes that I was sitting at table 109 I accidentally left my red carpet photo underneath the chair I was sitting in. So now some poor NASCAR official has my photo or it’s in the garbage at the Wynn. Oh welly. 🙂

My real table was with other media people including my table-mate from last year Mike Smith of the Las Vegas Sun. It was a great table, closer to the center stage than I’d ever been before. Hopefully you watched the ceremony, not going to walk you through it, but it was a great night. I loved all of the performances including Kid Rock, Ella Mae and Reba, except for the Jersey Boys who I was all set to love but they were off key a lot (I have the original cast recording so it’s hard to top that).


Margaret Haas stands next to Tony Stewart during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion's Week Awards Ceremony at Wynn Las Vegas on Dec. 2, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev.

Margaret Haas stands next to Tony Stewart during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion's Week Awards Ceremony at Wynn Las Vegas on Dec. 2, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev. (Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Kid Rock

Kid Rock

Ella Mae Bowen

Ella Mae Bowen


Dinner was delish with filet mignon and lobster. Dessert was just “eh” with this weird “Red Delicious” apple theme they were trying out. It was shaped like an apple, candy apple red, with some sort of mousse as the top half and the bottom had real cooked apples and a small layer of almond cake in the middle.

When it was over I went back to my hotel where it was filled with people headed to Marquee, the Cosmopolitan’s club. I have only one question: Why is it that when women go to clubs in Las Vegas they automatically dress like hookers? I don’t understand. 🙂 These girls looked like they were shoehorned into these dresses that were too tight and too short. I was dressed totally wrong so I went Va Bene Cafe, the Cosmo coffee shop and got a vanilla latte.

And THAT concludes my trip to Las Vegas for Champion’s Week 2011. Stay tuned for driver interviews and the 2011 Hottest NASCAR Driver Tournament coming after New Year’s!

🙂

(All photos credit The Fast and the Fabulous unless otherwise noted)