Kentucky Speedway

I received a big surprise for Father's Day. My five kids sent me clues via e-mail and phone throughout the day on Thursday of last week. These were in the form of letters, which had to be unscrambled. At the end of the clues, I had no clue! After some unscrambling, however, the words were "Sparta Kentucky". That is the city where the Kentucky Speedway is located.

Danette and I went to the Nationwide race on Saturday evening. We even were able to get pit passes. We spent a couple hours in the pit area before and during qualifying. We were able to get very close to Carl Edwards, Kenny and Steve Wallace, David Ragan, Clint Bowyer, David Reuttiman and a few other racers.

Danette observed that the guys qualifying were a lot faster than I drove when I drove there for Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure. It is still neat, though to watch the racing on the same track that I was able to drive a few years ago.

When qualifying was nearly over, we went to our seats. There, from Row 17, we watched the start of the race. When it was about half over we went back to the pit area. From our vantage point there, we could get directly behind the pit boxes and watch the crew chief and crews work. We could walk the entire length of the pit road from Turn 4 to Turn 1. That made for an extremely interesting evening.

When Kyle Busch crashed on the backstretch, the crowd was thrilled. If you don't know, Kyle is not liked real well by many Nascar fans because of his run-ins with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., the fan favorite. Danette and I were standing at the entrance to pit road when that accident happened. When they brought the wrecked car around to the front, Danette and I were leading the cheers of the 73,000 fans. That was the happiest that the crowd was all night, I believe. I also received a phone call from Paul Lavy moments after the wreck. As Paul said, it couldn't have happened to a better person! Even Mom isn't terribly enamored with Mr. Busch!

Eighteen-year-old Joey Logano won the race easily. He is the youngest ever to win a Nationwide race.

What a great night it was for racing, and what a nice Father's Day present from the kids. Thanks Regi, Jason, Danette, Brent and Ally.

On Sunday, we had a great meal at Danette's apartment. All the kids were there, and some friends also. Thanks, kids.

Boys Night Out

Jason called me on Saturday afternoon asking me to go go-karting with him and his brother and dad. Since the girls were horse-showing, and I had my mowing, door-hanging, weed-spraying and garage door-installing done, I said "OK".

I have done a small amount of racing in my life. I have raced at Kentucky Speedway with Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure, did the driving experience at Myrtle Beach Speedway and ran the 1/4 scale cars at the Smoky Mountain Speedway along with numerous go-kart tracks, including Dawnview Raceway, our own exclusive dirt track in our yard. However, last night's racing experience left me asking the question, "Where are the HANS devices?"

Fasttimes in Indy was the location. And fast is the word of the day. I think you run somewhere around 45 mph at times. It is out of the pits with a left turn, hard on the accelerator, a sweeping high-speed left, then set up for a 180 to the right. That sets you up for the high speed part of the track. A right turn is followed by a right turn, up the hill to the second level, into a FAST sweeping right, and get ready for calamity corner as you barrel into one more hard right, before charging down the hill into, finally, another left that takes you past the pits and into another lap.

I think it was on Lap 3 of our first heat that I found the wall up there at the end of the high-speed sweeping rights. Being new to the track, I hadn't discovered the danger points yet. I slammed the wall, hitting on my left side, at maybe 40 mph. That's when I wondered where is the HANS? HANS stands for Head And Neck Restraint System and is worn by all the Nascar drivers. I got airborne a little and my neck snapped sideways. That will wake you up a little. I bumped the wall a few times the rest of the evening, but I found a way to get through that turn, quickly and safely the rest of the racing time.

That was easily the most exciting go-kart racing I have ever done. I posted the 24th quickest lap at that track for May 17. That was about 2 seconds slower than the fastest laps. I went as fast as I wanted for the evening, though. Thanks, Jason, Aaron and John for the fun and exciting evening.

To be honest with you, there was a freak fatality at that track a few months ago, apparently at the same place that I smacked the wall. I wasn't ever worried about being seriously injured while driving, but it can happen, and one should be careful when participating in sports like that.

By the way, I am hurting this morning. The neck is stiff, there is a place on the left side of my back where that series of sweeping rights forces the back into the seat and somehow there is a bruise on the right leg. One last question from me. How does it feel to hit the wall at 160 mph, like the Nascar boys do week after week? They just earned a little more respect from me.

Before long, I plan to tell you a little about the Dale Jarrett Driving Adventure that I participated in a few years ago.