Yesterday was the official kickoff of the NASCAR season with the Grand Daddy of all races – The Daytona 500. So I thought I would use this as an opportunity to tell you a bit about my Nascar prowess (or lack thereof).
I am, what is fondly referred to down here below the Mason Dixon line as, “A Yankee”. Growing up in the Greater Chicagoland Area, we didn’t have NASCAR. We had Da Cubs, Da Bulls and Da Bears. When I was younger, I would randomly hear advertisements on the radio for the ‘US Smokin’ 30 Dragstrip’, which was located in Joliet, Il. Yes, the same location as the State Penitentiary and home to the infamous Al Capone until the day he died. Back then, in the Greater Chicagoland Area, we didn’t have anything called NASCAR.
That being said, it wasn’t long after Michael and I met that I was first introduced to this sport. I will admit I found it very difficult to categorize this as a “sport”; that is until I actually attended a race and was startled by how FAST these guys go! Over time, I came to enjoy watching races, but primarily for the social event of it more so than the race itself. I never had any driver that I followed or really paid attention to. My neighbors are Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon fans and over the summer, that’s pretty much where we end up in cul-de-sac conversations; who was “on the pole” and who is “points leader”. To me, it’s kind of the sound of Charlie Brown’s teacher…..wha wha wha…
Several years ago, one of our neighbors was coming up on his 40th birthday. The rest of us got together and decided to throw him a Surprise Party. Being the uber-shy guy that he is, we decided to wrap his party around a NASCAR race – to make sure he showed. It was fairly common for our neighborhood to all get together at one persons’ house or another to watch a race, we figured that a perfect ruse to get him over. We enlisted the help of his sister, who lived in another state. She agreed to plan a visit with him that weekend for his birthday and we would invite him over to watch the race. It wasn’t unusual for him to change his mind at the lasts minute and not show to some event and this time was no exception, but having talked with his sister, all it took was her to say “hey, you talk about your friends all the time, let me at least meet them”.
The whole group was over, we have the house decorated with Over the Hill stuff, streamers, do not cross tape, etc. We have the obligatory baby picture on a large poster board where everyone has written birthday wishes, Steve is filming the surprise on his face as he enters the house. As he walked in it literally took a minute for him to figure out what was going on. He had walked past all of the Do Not Cross ribbons, didn’t even notice Steve filming and completely missed the cake and poster sized card with his baby picture in the middle of it. Once it clicked and we all had a good laugh about it, the party began. The NASCAR race truly was part of the invite, so it played on the monster screen in the living room where it is clearly visible from the kitchen where many of us mingled. Another of our neighbors, Danny, decided to go around with a name of each of the race drivers in a hat and have everyone pick one. This way even if you weren’t a fan, you had someone to follow and pay attention to – fun idea we thought. Everyone threw in a buck and the person with the name of the winner would get the pot.
Michael loves the movie “The Princess Bride” and if you are familiar, there is a character Inigo Montoya in the movie. “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”. He must say that line 1000 times in the movie. Well, as it turns out there was a newer driver that year named Juan Pablo Montoya so of course I wanted to pull that name – just for the joke factor. No such luck. In fact, I pulled Denny Hamlin, who happens to be neighbor Steve’s favorite driver. Just as I pull Denny’s name, Steve is there and launches into this whole story of Denny Hamlin, how he grew up in Southwest Virginia and he drives for Fed Ex. I’m listening and when I hear the part about driving for FedEx, I look at Danny (also a Fed Ex Driver) and say; “Wow, that’s pretty cool that Fed Ex lets him off work on the weekends to race? I wonder how ……..?” I stop mid-sentence because of the look of shock amazement and amusement on Danny and Steve’s faces that I was serious. It quickly turned to cackling laughter between Danny and Steve. I may be blonde, but it only took a second before I figured out what a stupid thought that was and laughed right along with them.
Its been 5 or 6 years since that incident, but it continues to come up at least once a race season. And I’m ok with that………..cuz it still causes me to giggle every time I think of it.
Go Juan Pablo!