Though the Charlotte October trip is always pressed for time
and a full night sleep is never an option. We all pour into to town and have a
blast. We end up running on pure adrenaline,
caffeine, and friendship energy most of the time. It seems that the October trip the past few
years has become a questionable trip for me, as a broke poor college student it
makes it tough to go on vacation. But
the main cause is normally can I move a midterm, can I afford to miss this
class, do I have the money? Have I already bought the tickets and so one the
list of questions can go on and on. The
other option is always putting the 3rd Ticket to use if Little Buddy
Drew can’t make it down for some unforeseen reason. So
I push my trip to the side until last minute to figure out the ticket
situations. I push my health problems
aside to have some fun, and try to be normal again. The past few years I have had the money to
make the trip possible without cutting it this close to the wire. If I was
going to make this trip it was gonna have to be Thursday instead of Wednesday,
and I was gonna have to miss most of the fun.
Welcome to adult life… I know I know. Been here for 10 years already. Wasn’t gonna be able to get a ride from
Simpsonville to Charlotte until Thursday.
Alittle
over a month ago I asked a friend about xfinity garage passes. That option
never hurts. Its an added bonus if they are granted. No big deal if they aren’t
granted. There is always fun to be had,
or trouble to get into elsewhere. Monday
of race week is normally the day to find the answer out to this question. Tuesday of race week we find out of Drew can
make it or not, and if Sue is making the trip down alone. We always hope for the best that Drew is
coming down. I hate to see him missing race trips. He is in the same college
boat as me. He also has to find someone
to cover work shifts.
My cell
phone goes off with a text from Cathleen Tuesday morning, she scored and extra
weekend ticket package for the weekend for me. So I had tickets that was good
news. It meant the trip was going happen. Not even 5 minutes after this I get a
call from my friend Chris about xfinity passes. I got the passes. The trip was
coming together. So immediately I texted Sue to tell her it would be Thursday
before I could make it up there but I had tickets covered otherwise. She informed me to attempt to see about meeting
half way if at all possible Wednesday because of a trip to RCR for Sue and Shel
Thursday morning. They knew I couldn’t turn a trip up to RCR down. Ok so next
mission get a ride half way to charlotte for Wednesday. Gotta make it Happen
gotta make the RCR Trip…. So of course I
worked on those plans and made them happen.
Sue and Shel both got into
Mooresville Area around 7am Wednesday Morning.
Made the Cookie drop off at Gibbs. They were meeting me at 5pm Wednesday in
Gaffney so I could join in the fun.
Cathleen called me as she was heading towards Mooresville form Raleigh
as well. Turns out we would meet up with
her at the GoPro Motorplex GoKart track. That was fun, and Lancasters BBQ
afterwards was delicious as always.
So let the fun begin with started Thursday morning with a
quick stop for drinks and then the treck up to RCR. We met up with Pam and Cathleen up there, and
then made it backs to Kannapolis by 11:15 to see Brendan Gaughan at Scotts
Collectibles at Noon. He arrived alittle bit early. Brendan knows about my
health issues and always wants to know how things are going. So we chatted for
a few minutes. After making it through the little line. We were out out of
there by noon so we went to Stewart Haas Racing. Then the best pizza Place EVER…. PIE IN THE
SKY! The group split and went our
separate ways Pam, Cathleen, and I went towards the track.
We arrived at the track and had no issues getting the garage
credentials. I had to make a cookie deliver tone of our friends at the Media
center. So I went straight down to the garage area. Cathleen got Pam
straightened out with the ticket for quals.
In the Garage area I ran into Brian Scott, Brendan Gaughan. Bubba
Wallace and a few others. Basically made
the rounds between the RCR garage areas and the Gibbs garage areas and back
over to Pit Road. Over by the Cup garage entrance. Also used my camera to zoom up to the
Spotters stand and take pictures of the spotters from pit road. The best picture was taken during cup quals, When
I got a picture with Brendan Gaughan and Brian Scott came up behind us and
perfectly photobombed us. I consider
both of them good friends of mine, and I think it’s perfect for the way we are
together.
We met
back up at hotel and then we went to dinner at Carolina Ale House. Danica and Ricky were just inside the door
eating… We should have turned around and left. We know they have great food,
but our server was HORRIBLE. Add that to
the fact that Princess Sparkles was there.
Then I looked over and saw that Ron Malec from the 48 team walked in with some of his
friends. That was an added bonus. It
was a late night and finally got sleep between 12:30 and 1am to be up at 4:30
am Friday Morning in time to make the Joe Gibbs Racing Fan Day line, so we
could see Kyle Busch. We wanted to be
inline by 6am with hopes of making it to get a wristband at 8am. Thankfully
that happened. So we got a chance to see Kyle.
We also wanted to see the Xfinity drivers and development drivers so we
did. Saw some of our Favorite JGR Cookie Monsters walking around. We split ways from JGR and some of us went
to the track and some went to other shops.
We also had Rene with us for the track and xfinity day. We ate lunch on the way to the track, and
when we got to the track Cathleen and I went straight down to the garage area.
Pam and Renee went to the xfinity driver signing on pit road. We made our first trip around the garage
collecting driver cards. When we got to
Cale Connleys hauler he was sitting there waiting to go to the autograph session
on pit road. So we had him sign one of his cards. With our garage passes we
could go down pit road and check out the signing but all of the drivers that
were at the signing were pretty much ones we already had or wouldn’t be hard to
catch in the garage if we hadn’t already gotten them. We took some pictures and made our way back
into the garage area. We ran into Brian Scott so I had to talk to him and show
him the photo bomb picture. He was happy that we caught that one. We ran
into various other drivers and spoke with them such as two of my favorite
fellow South Carolinians Jeremy Clements and Jordan Anderson. We also saw Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Bubba
Wallace again, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Truex, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keslowski, Kyle
Busch, amongst others.
We also waited near the cup garage and
watched some of the crew chiefs and cup drivers go by. We were able to catch
Clint Bowyer for just a minute and of course He looked at me and asked “What
are you doing?” my response as usual “Causing Trouble as always.” He says that’s
about right. Gotta love my driver. Xfinity
Quals were fun on pit road. I also had to zoom and take pictures of the
spotters, creatively loafing on the roof.
We met up with Liz who it was her first live
race and she had managed to get cold cup garage passes and so with that pass
she could go into the xfinity garage as well. So Cathleen and I gave her a crash course in
xfinity garage 101. We had a blast. We
saw some of crew friends in the garage area before the race which is always
fun. We all watched the race for different parts of
pit road. One of the security guards for the garage that had been really nice
to me all weekend, was stationed next to Brian Scotts pit for the race, he
pulled me by my walking stick and stuck me in a corner of the pit box in a safe
place so I could see the start finish line good and watch the race. I also
traveled up and down Pit road for a bit. Taking pictures of Brendan’s crew,
Kyle Busch’s crew, and Erik Jones crew (or you can say the 11 pit crew). The race was uneventful except for going back
and taking a picture of Kyles car in the garage after he and kasey got into it
on the track. Austin Dillion Won,
Cathleen was able to get good Victory Lane pics, I couldn’t get close enough at
first so I decided to go and See Brendan one more time and get my picture with
him in his fire suit. It worked out
perfectly while I was doing that the crowd around Victory Lane Died down. Brendan told me to be careful as usual. It was 11:30 or so when we got out of the
track. I was beat having been up since 4:30. Thankfully Saturday I didn’t have
to get up until 8am and the race wasn’t until 7pm Saturday. We started out the morning with Breakfast and
hopes the rain would be gone by race time. A Jeff Gordon display in going on
right now at the Nascar Hall of Fame so we went and checked it out and had to
deliver our buddy Marc Davis a cheese cake on the other side of Charlotte at
his work place. We made a stop at
Hendrick Motorsports before deciding food would be a good thing. Chilis sounded
perfect to us so we went to the one on Harris blvd. They were out of Soda
because their machine was down. We drove the 6 miles to the Chillis at North
Lake. Food was Awesome, Service as beyond amazing. And then we went to the
hotel to get our stuff ready for the track. It was still raining but we figured
the race might start around 9 because it was supposed to be clearing up. We get
to the track and get a couple things done such as finding a shirt as a gift,
and find out the Cup race has been called due to rain. It would run at 12:30 on
Sunday.
Well this just throws
everyone for a loop we had to figure out getting home plans and everything because
a long drive for part of the group was now turning into another all nighter on
the road. Luckily were able to get all
that settled and we were looking forward to the race and hopefully seeing
spotters still before the race.
We woke up Sunday
Morning, packed up the car and got some breakfast before heading over to the
track. Thankfully parking worked well, and Pam and Cathleen were parked right
behind us so I could move my stuff into their car for heading back south after
the race. We went right inside the track to stand in our usual area in front of
the Spotters Elevator. We saw our buddy
Derek Kneeland, Spotter for the 42 car, and then we saw Brett Griffin,
Clint Bowyers Spotter. Shortly after
that my good buddy Tim Fedewa and his
friend came walking up. I apparently was zoned out because Tim startled me when
he walked up, however that’s nothing new. It was great to get to see him again
this year. We were able to get yet another picture, and talk for alittle
while. Its always a good thing to get
Hugs from Tim. We also saw Tab Boyd, Joey Logano’s spotter, before going to our
seats. The race wasn’t too bad. Clints
car was actually pretty good most of the race. So it was nice to hear that on
the radio for once. I did flip over and listen to Kevin and Tim on the radio
too.
After the race we all waited in the parkinglot before we all
said, “Have a Safe Trip, Cya Later.” We don’t
say Bye or Good bye because that’s too final. Its always cya later or until
May!
Just like any other trip leaving is the hardest. No matter
how quick or jam packed a trip is we never want to leave. We all try to keep
the tears for streaming but there is always some part of the weekend that we
reflect on as we are leaving town and the tears well up.
Whether it’s
the friendships we have formed with some crew members, drivers, or spotter. Or
just the friendships we have made amongst the group, and we only see each other
face to face a couple times a year. In
2004 when I started the adventures of going to the race I never thought it was
last this long, and that I would have so many wonderful friendships out of
it. I Took a chance and invited online
friends, to come down May of 2005 and well Shel joined there, for a race and
well the party officially began there. I
met Pam online as well and October of 05 we met her. Shel had met Sue online and in 2007, Sue and
Drew Officially joined our crazy group. We’ve kept adding others along the way,
and in 2011 thanks to a tweet up in the Middle of no where in Concord NC thanks to Colin Braun, Cathleen
officially became part of the group. We
have so many great memories from the race weeks in Charlotte to last a life
time. And I can’t thank everyone enough for all the memories, laughs, tears,
and great times we have had. Here is too many more years of fun!
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