by richard teague tinynascars@yahoo.com
While I am writing this it is 76 days until the Daytona 500. When y’all read it there will be around 70. That ain’t fast enough for me, but what else can I do? Watch feetball, ain’t no way. I take that back somewhat. I will be watching some bowl games later on this month and at the start of the New Year, but the NFL is absolutely out of the question. I am ready for more NA$CAR whether it is one of the two new named series or the tried-and-true Craftsman Truck Series. It may be 70 days or so until the 500, but the season starts for me with the 2008 NA$CAR Media Day event, the week before the Bud Shootout. Ever since my rookie season as the Entertaining U NA$CAR writer, I’ve been there bright and early.
If you’ve missed my explanation of what Media Day is, I’ll tell ya again and Bubbas & Bubba-ettes, it is really something else, even if I can’t get any autographs. It is a full day’s worth of meeting, shaking hands with, interviewing, listening to and getting your picture with all of your favorite drivers. Yeah, I even get to take a cameraman. So far that has been my old friend John, but this year he might not be able to get off work to go. Why, a couple a years back he was like a kid-in-a-candy-factory when I got a picture of him with Kasey Kahne and Bill Elliott, his two favorite drivers at the time. He got me with several of my guys, so it has worked out real good for the both of us and hopefully will be the same this year.
All these press people huddle in a big tent early in the morning and NA$CAR feeds us a nice breakfast. We visit with drivers, then they feed us a big lunch and then it’s back to the guys again. Heck, them fellers have to eat also and it ain’t nothing to be sitting down with Bobby Labonte, one of the Burton brothers, and even once at Mike Helton’s table with Bill Jr. and Brian nearby. Talk about rubbing elbows and fightin’ for grub, man it’s the greatest thing since canned beer and some of y’all know how good that is.
The tent is divided up into several sections with the TV and radio taking about half, then there’s the interview booths that’s reserved for more of those guys with the drivers. Then there is a big section for us print media. We get to crowd around the drivers and ask them questions. Now you have to really wait your turn when it comes to guys like Stewart or Gordon, and ya’ never can get close to Junior, because they are just too popular. That don’t bother me cause I’ll stand back and listen to what they have to say and when they make a break for another section, I’ll get a picture taken by John with me shaking hands or something, really works out great. NA$CAR brings the drivers in 5 or 6 at a time, when everybody is at one of the other tables I’ll head for a guy that’s just standing there. Two years ago I got John and Kasey’s picture. Heck, we talked to him maybe 15 minutes before it got crowded and we all enjoyed talking to each other; he’s a super nice kid.
If all this don’t sound like a NA$CAR fan’s dream, then y’all ain’t one because it’s fun for me and John. Like I said, we can’t ask for autographs, but that don’t mean nothing since we get so much more out of it. Like the time I asked Terry Labonte if he felt he raced better with or without his mustache. He said with. I asked if I could have his helmet, which was sittin’ on the table in front of me. He said no. Seeing and talking to these guys is just an amazing feat, so we don’t need no stinkin’ autographs. Handshakes and pictures will fill up our scrapbooks. Next year, after Media Day, I will fill y’all in on how things went. If between now and then you have any special questions you would like asked, just let me know and I’ll try and get to the driver you need knowledge from. I Promise.
Well I missed the awards ceremony the other night, I had to work and all, but I’ve been looking at what some guys have been writing and saying about it and it sounds like I didn’t miss much. When I heard that NA$CAR got David Spade to be the host, well I kinda’ knew things where going to be strange. I’ve never found him to be that funny except when he was with Chris Farley. Why Spade? One writer said he came cheap and with all the money NA$CAR paid out to the drivers, he’s all they could afford. Not Brian, he’s still had a ton of money in the bank after this season, so it must have been for another reason. Why didn’t they get someone like Jack Roush to hand out the trophies? Better yet, Richard Petty. You know, The King Giving out the Gold?
I hate to say this but I’m not much of a music fan. At least not these days, because of my hearing problem. So who is Kelly Clarkson? I apologize to all of her fans and all of y’all for not knowing who she is, but it’s like at the races when NA$CAR has a singer or singers that I don’t know and they get up there and kill the National Anthem. Well she wasn’t that impressive either. Why not have Led Zeppelin? They’re doing a tour again. They could have done ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and changed it to ‘Stairway to the Championship.’ That would have been real cool. I got it, Willie Nelson. He’s going to be at the Florida Theatre next month and could have everybody out to his bus afterwards when he passes out joints to the crowd.
You know, it don’t really matter who does what on that stage at the end of the season because everything has been done already with the championship decided. The other categories have been filled with the names of drivers, owners, team members and the other people of NA$CAR that are well deserving of their accomplishments for the 2007 season. Sit and listen to the drivers thanking everybody involved with their car (and rightly so because without them they wouldn’t be there at all). The year’s long work has paid off for these people and it is an emotional time for all. It is a time for those pats on the backs for everyone. Who needs a comedy host or a big name singer for that? These guys get up there and entertain us with their emotions alone.
I ran into an old friend the other day and he told me he liked my articles, but they did put him to sleep sometimes. So for this week (and only this week) I’m shortening it up a tad. Remember if ya’ got a question or a comment, you know where to contact me and If it Ain’t NA$CAR, It Ain’t S**t!!
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