We ESCAPED yesterday, Dear Hubby and I, for just a day, and it was...AWESOME! I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone, especially in these difficult times. Of course, it makes today kind of a downer in comparison, having to come back to Real Life, and a Monday, no less, but that's okay -- there's me, trying to worry too far ahead again.
Yesterday, was the
Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway - yes, a NASCAR Race, can you believe it?! Maybe that makes us just a little redneck, after 15 years in Atlanta, especially since we didn't think to take sunscreen and, quite literally, have necks that are burnt red and painful. Even so--
A wonderful friend stepped in to take care of the kids for the day (thank you, Nancy!), and another wonderful friend with NASCAR connections fixed us up with Garage Passes (thank you, Jerry!) and we went down to the track in Hampton, Georgia and had a terrific time - it was Magic.
We got to go into the garage area and see the cars, drivers and crew members as they prepared for the race --
Joey Logano (Tony Stewart's young 18-year-old replacement in the orange
Home Depot #20 car) walked right next to me, with his entourage, and it was actually no big deal -- I'm not one to chase after celebrities for autographs or get all screamy and weak-kneed (plus, they asked us not to), but it was pretty.freaking.COOL!
Now, if you're not a NASCAR fan (and I'm still not sure
how it happened to me, just last year), I understand. None of this will mean anything to you, but still:
We saw NASCAR drivers walking around:
AJ Allmendinger, who supposedly was bringing "sexy back to NASCAR" (according to his wife), but not so much IMHO, of course;
Juan Pablo Montoya, who in fact
does (bring sexy!), in a Latin fiery-temper, larger-than-life kind of way;
Robby Gordon, who is one of the very few driver/owners in NASCAR and nobody ever seems to talk to him in the interviews on TV (he was by himself, walking along, but we didn't want to bother him, either, although I thought maybe I should say something encouraging);
Carl Edwards, who is not one of my favorites, but he does a backflip off his car when he wins a race and he won a lot last year;
Aric Almirola (hope I got that right) and
David Reutimann.
We didn't see any of our personal favorite drivers in the garage area, but we did see their cars, close enough to reach out and touch, in the garage pits and being pushed around the garage area by their crew members, from one NASCAR inspection area to the next and then out to the track. We visited and followed around Dear Hubby's favorite:
Jeff Gordon's #24 Dupont Chevrolet.
I don't have a single favorite, being fickle like that, but we saw all of my really like-a-lots:
Elliott Sadler's #19 Stanley Tools Dodge (Elliott is tall, southern & sweet like a big huggy bear on TV);
Bobby Labonte's #96 Ask.com Ford Fusion (he was my favorite to win yesterday, but he didn't; he did take a big slide through center field at the beginning of the race in front of us, which was kind of cool, not in a good way);
Michael Waltrip's #55 NAPA Toyota Camry (he is big & goofy on TV, and kind of an underdog, as the owner of his own team that doesn't win so much, but all his cars have had a great start this year); and
Tony Stewart's #14 Office Depot Chevrolet (he's a bad boy - I just love him!).
We saw team owners that we recognized from TV and crew chiefs (our favorites: Chad Knauss and Bootie Barker, from their TV commentating); Wendy Venturini and John Roberts from the Speed Channel. We even saw our good friend, Peter on **** ******'s pit crew (name deleted to protect Peter!), who let us sneak over the chain and nonchalantly stay on pit row -
inside the pit! - for the start of the race when we were there in October (everybody gets kicked out of the garages and off pit row about an hour before the start of the race, usually) -- I never even had a chance to write about that experience, which was incredible! (We did not cozy up to Peter again this time, although we said hi, because we didn't want to get him in trouble and we wanted to be back in our terrific seats out front in the stands for the start of the race this time.)
Kurt Busch, in the "Blue Deuce" (#2 Miller Lite Dodge) dominated the race and eventually won. I don't remember too much else, since by the end I was sleepy, sun-soaked, RC Cola'd and sunburned, all too ready to come home and watch it again on TV, to see all the action and replays and hear the commentating. We had TrackScanners, which are headphones you can listen in to all of the driver radios and an overall race commentary, too. Mostly, they protect your ears from the incredible roar of the engines as the cars go by...again and again and again (I'm not even sure how many hundreds of laps yesterday - 400?). It is hard to follow the race itself there in the stands, but there is so much going on, with the cars going by and trying to not miss any crashes and drivers hitting the wall (not much of that yesterday); not to mention the people-watching, which would be the start of a whole 'nother blog, and I am trying to keep these short!
Back to Real Life today: I need to walk the dog and get up to the nursing home to visit with Mom for an hour or so, get my To Do & Task List from her, now that she is feeling better, and then get kids from school...have to wait until Labor Day for my next full-day NASCAR getaway at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Until then, thank goodness for high-def TV!
Thanks again to our dear friends, Nancy S. and Jerry R., for childcare and connections, and to the NASCAR connection herself, another Sherri-with-an-i. Given our lives right now, you can't imagine how much this meant to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 04:24AM 
