KJQF - Concord Regional Airport 7/27/14: NASCAR Air Force

[moose135]

I've posted a handful of shots from Concord Regional in my KCLT thread, but thought I'd post these separately. Many of the NASCAR teams operate out of JQF, and Sunday, following the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis, I met a fellow CLT spotter to catch some of the arrivals.

There's no missing Jamie McMurray's Citation X.



Xtra Airways and Miami Air 734 charters for crew members.





A pair of Stewart Haas Racing CRJ-200s. The first once saw service with Independence Air, the second is the former US Airways Express aircraft I've shot a couple of times.





Richard Childress Racing E-135





Here's driver Jimmie Johnson, his team owner, Rick Hendrick, and a Hendrick Racing Saab 2000.







Joe Gibbs Racing Challenger 600 and their two Saab 2000s

[captmjk16]

Nice shots Moose! You weren't kidding about McMurray's Citation, that's a beauty that would be very difficult to miss!

[Kiffy]

Very cool collection of aircraft!

Were these shots taken with ramp access?

It was cool to see all the flights inbound to IND the morning of the race:
Flightradar24

[moose135]

Thanks, guys!

Were these shots taken with ramp access?

Sort of...ramp side, right outside the doors from the terminal, there are a couple of benches. We asked the lady at the desk inside if we could go out there to catch the arrivals - the guy I was with has been out there before, but not for any of the NASCAR traffic. Most of the crew members walked past us to go into the terminal. Got to say hello to Joe Gibbs and Danica Patrick, and one guy asked if we were "those guys who take pictures of airplanes and put them on FlightAware..." He thought that was cool.

I didn't mention anything last night, but since it's made the local news, as well as ESPN and other major media outlets, I'll mention a minor incident that happened. N141SH, the Stewart Haas CRJ was parked on the ramp, with everyone offloaded. One of the Gibbs Saabs, N519JG, was taxiing behind it, to park along side, when they clipped the tail cone of the CRJ with the left wingtip. The other SHR CRJ blocked our view of the actual collision, but we heard the noise and saw the Saab stop suddenly. Not a lot of damage and no one was injured.

One of the Gibbs crew members tweeted a photo last night of the incident, so here's my take on it. That's the nose of the other SHR CRJ on the right, and you can see the C-172 that was parked on the other side of the Saab's path.

[Kiffy]

Wow that sounds like a really cool experience! and a very nice FBO to allow you to do that.

That incident definitely hurts, I wounder how the Sab's wing weathered.

[Ari707]

pit crew should have that all fix in under 3 min.