It's that time of year again, time for a little NASCAR racing in Thunder Valley. My Mom and I have season tickets to Bristol Motor Speedway and we even named our Beagle after the track. But over the last few years, the racing has not been the same. I know the point of racing is not to wreck everyone on the track, but there was something special about the beating and banging that went on during a Bristol race.
We skipped last year's Spring race to attend a Kenny Chesney concert in Tampa. I've often wondered when the races would start messing up my other travel plans. So, I guess my love for Kenny is greater than my love for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But this year, we decided to hit up the Spring race. And boy and I glad we did...I finally got the chance to see Junior in the flesh! My mom & step-dad met him a few years ago at a National Guard event in Nashville. My step-dad's actually met Jr twice.
Both my mom & step-dad are retired from the National Guard, but still work at the armory in Nashville, on the state side of things. My step-brother still works for the Guard as well. Needless to say when Jr moved to HMS a few years ago and the National Guard became a co-primary sponsor, things got interesting. Jr's the perfect face for the National Guard. I
Back to me and Junior...we got a call early Sunday morning....about 7:30AM or so. One of the guys my parents use to work with had extra VIP passes to meet Junior. We had no idea what else was going on, we just had to be at the track by 9:00AM. It was raining and we had just passed the Greenville sign when we had to hammer down and get up there. Good thing race traffic did not exist. We parked and ran (yes, I RAN) to Hospitality Village. Next thing I knew, we had lanyards around our necks and we were walking toward the National Guard hauler. Mom and I were handed die cast race cars and Jr was going to sign them at 10:30AM.
Uh, what? I thought it was going to be one of those talking appearances, you know, where the driver just stands on the stage and just talks to the crowd. Yeah, this is when I thought I was going to pass out and the fact that I didn't have on any make-up really hit home.
It was still raining, I was hot from running and I didn't even have a tan to cover my lack of made up face. What a way for me to finally see Jr face to face...sans make-up. Great!
Long story short, about 20-25 of us were ushered in the hauler once Jr arrived. He was very polite and posed for photos even though we told not to ask for them, as they were pressed for time. Not wanting to screw things up, I had my car signed wished him well, thanked him and hurried down the steps. Then I got yelled at because I went to fast, so I got called back to take a photo with him. I wanted to crawl under the hauler and hide, but he thought it was funny. After everyone when through one of the guys asked my mom if she got a photo with her camera. She said no, so they ordered be back in there. You'd think I'd be giddy, but I was mortified. I didn't want him to be late to the drivers meeting, but again, he was very gracious and humble. He even "ma'am-ed" me. Now that's the only think I'm going to remember, Dale Earnhardt Jr "ma'am-ed" me!!
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