From Betty at RacecarStupid.com

I met a lady by the name of Judith that came up to me when I was passing out fliers at Phoenix International Raceway and asked me if I would post a story about a loved one she lost in Iraq.  She said he was a diehard fan and would have been at the Phoenix race except he never made it home .  .  .  Judith if you are out there and read this please send me the story.  I have children who have served over there but I am one of the lucky Moms – mine came home safe.   Any of you other readers who have stories like this I would be honored to share them with our readers.  Please thank anyone in your family or you know who are serving or have served in the armed forces for me.  They are very special people.

When my daughter served in Korea she called me during the day (usually calls me in the middle of the night – their night and day is opposite of ours) and asked me what day it was.  It happened to be a Sunday here.  She said what Sunday?  I asked why.  She asked what race was going on.  I told her Daytona and she responded that it was 3 a.m. there and half the barracks were outside in the freezing weather with TV’s tuned to the race and their bar-b-ques going. Even deployment does not dampen the race fan if they are able to watch a race!

Please send me your stories.  You will be amazed how much you all have in common!

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Jennifer

Nevada, MO writes:

The last time my husband and I went to a race was a week ago for the Samsung Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. We are from Texas and have been going to TMS for 3 yrs now. Living in Missouri we now have to drive 500 miles to get there. This was the first time we made the trip in our brand new PT Cruiser (only 8 weeks old). The whole trip started out bad. We got a late start, and it rained the entire time we were driving through Missouri and Oklahoma. About 50 miles from the Texas state line I realized I left our tickets in Missouri. Thank god Ticketmaster replaced them. When we arrived in Fort Worth to drop the kids off, I wrecked the car!!!  Two hours later in a rental car, we found ourselves on I-35N in the middle of a tornado with now were to go. So we braved the hail and funnel clouds then made our way to the track. We set up just in time for the wind, rain and freezing temperatures, only to find that our mattress had a hole in it and our tent door zipper broke. We then endured another day and night of the cold and wind just to see the Nextel Cup race where I received the worst sun burn I’ve ever had .  .  .  and I can’t wait for November to do it again!!!!!

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Adam
Sunny View, N.C.

Kicked out of Darlington Speedway...

A few years ago following a vacation to Myrtle Beach, S.C. my parents thought it might be a nice treat on the way home to stop at Darlington Speedway in Darlington, S.C.  I, being a huge NASCAR fan, have always wanted to go to Darlington just to see the speedway so this was a chance of a lifetime for me.

We soon arrived at Darlington and I was quickly overwhelmed by the wonderful museum hosted at the speedway.  I got my picture taken with Bill Elliott's Winston Million Dollar Car from 1985 (being a born and raised Bill Elliott fan) and spent quite awhile drooling over all the goodies in the shop.  

Then my mother and father had a great idea, lets see if we can drive out onto the race track.  The young lady at the front desk advised us to go speak to the security guard at the end of the speedway.  We drove down to the security guards office and he came out of his office.  We didn't exit our cars, instead we simply poked our heads out and asked if we could go on the track.  He just waved us on by and went back inside before we could even get our cars in gear.

So what did we do?  We drove our cars right down onto the track.  After about 10 minutes of us taking photos of each other and ours cars on the track suddenly the security guard came running down the track yelling at us.  He was saying that we couldn't be there and that we had to leave right then.  As my parents began to argue with him I noticed a jeep flying at top speed down the straight away right at us.

The jeep came to a halt just behind my car and out of it came some big man in a polo shirt and blue jeans with a radio.  He walks right up to my dad and tells him that we either need to leave or he is calling the cops to arrest us on the spot.  My dad laughs in his face and tells everyone to load up.  As we are pulling off the track my dad, who was driving my car at this point, sticks his arm out the window and gives the security guard and the other man a one finger salute.  My brothers and I quickly did the same.  

Needless to say I don't think I'm welcome at Darlington.  Either way I'd do it all over again because I've got a picture of my '94 Thunderbird on Darlington Speedway!  You can't get much better than that.

Luke from Los Angeles, CA

My family was camped in April, 2007, in the infield of Phoenix International Raceway.  We invited our new friends from the surrounding motorhomes over for a friendly beer.  Unfortunately, I had a few too many friendly beers and fell asleep on the lounge chair I was reclined on.  My weekend neighbors talked my wife into playing a prank on me.  They duct taped me to the chair – hands, feet, around my stomach and my head (hair and all).   I did not wake up until the next morning with a blanket over my entire body.  I was alarmed that I could not move so I immediately turned my head to try to move the blanket off my face.  I lost a good portion of my eyebrows in the process!  Needless to say my scream of pain woke the entire area!  You can bet that I will never do that again but I will be hoping that we get the same neighbors next year so I can “pay them back” with another prank.

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