Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:06 pm
MIS Parade Lap 8/19/2012
- Sondra MIS Parade Lap for SHR Forum.jpg (211.6 KiB) Viewed 1061 times
It started out that we were able to wander around in the garage for 1/2 an hour. I finally got to see Richard Petty in person! After about a 1/2 hr we made our way out into the pre-race festivities on the front stretch. The four auction winners who were able to attend stood to the right of the stage where the drivers exited. I got some awesome pics of the drivers. Absolutely wonderful but nothing topped when we loaded into the trucks.
I got to ride with Tony Stewart AND Ryan Newman. How freaking cool is that? I sat behind Tony and one of the other auction winners sat behind Ryan. Ryan loaded first and I was able to shake his hand and ask him if he was feeling better (which he was not) before Tony loaded. I must say, I had zero nervousness. Nothing, it was as if I've known him forever. I just sat there in awe for a few minutes until finally he wouldn't stop talking to Ryan so I interrupted and said hi, sorry, but I would like to shake your hand and introduce myself. I think he was kind of shocked at first but hey, I bought that 5-minutes and dammit, I was going to milk it for all it's worth.
So, to make a super long story short, he ended up sitting down beside me on the back stretch and let's just say, the one thing I did say that had both Tony and Ryan laughing was when I mentioned that the view from back here isn't so bad either... Since i was literally a foot from the man you can figure out what I was referencing. They both laughed at it.
Anyway, it was awesome. I won't have my pic of tony and I until later. Someone took it and is emailing it to me. I did take a couple in the back of the truck but decided I didn't want to spend the entire experience eyeballing them through a lense. The naked eye was so much better!
Oh, and can I just say the highlight for me? As I was getting off the truck, Tony turned around and grabbed my hand and helped me down off the truck. Ok, now, I can say I got to hold Tony Stewarts hand! Now how many can actually say that? ROFLMAO! What a day to remember!!
Yes, this is me in the black shirt. I have a few others with my face in it, but I'll post a few more later.
“I hate to say I'm growing up because it scares me to think I might be but maybe I'm starting to realize there are more things to life than driving a race car.” ~Tony Stewart
I felt bad afterwards because I had a death grip on his hand because I thought I was going to fall. Feel kind of bad about that... well, maybe not.
He was nice enough to "act" the gentleman but I think the phrase "dirty ol' man" came to mind once maybe twice on that trip, but that's my story and not one that will be leaving that truck. Oh, to be young, blonde and self-confident. It might have been much more fun. Just kidding about the young and blonde part!
