Jean's Adventures in NASCAR

I have had a most interesting several months, learning about NASCAR!  Heaven knows how many hours I've spent watching the SPEED channel, reading NASCAR.com daily and talking with everyone I could find, trying to peer inside this sport that seems so simple on the outside but is actually quite complex—and SO rich in stories!

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY tour

Then, some hands-on experience, first, with a group of the Harlequin NASCAR: Secrets and Legends 2008 series writers, I toured the Texas Motor Speedway under the auspices of our very lovely tour guide Leah Sommerville.  Big thanks to Pauline Spencer for setting us up with Leah and for answering a zillion or so questions in advance of our arrival!

We had a ball on this tour: saw the Cup and Busch garages (with a bonus because the Jeff Gordon/Mario Andretti Driving School was setting up for the weekend, so we got to see actual Cup cars, even COTs—aka the Car of Tomorrow that's been so much in the news this year.)   We also were given a tour of the Infield Care Center (including the piece of Sterling Marlin's car he'd given to them after wrecking at TMS one year), the view from a luxury suite, and were treated to a couple of laps around the track!!!   I was amazed at the fact that the 24 degree banking meant that Leah didn't even have to turn the steering wheel for the car to turn.  When we got on the track, the banking felt so steep I would have sworn we'd tip right over!

We also had our pictures taken in Victory Lane, complete with our own Harlequin/NASCAR caps.  In this photo and the earlier one in the garage area, you'll see  yours truly, Executive Editor Marsha Zinberg of Harlequin and writers Wendy Etherington, Abby Gaines, Ken Casper, Michele Dunaway, and Helen Brenna.

BRISTOL NIGHT RACE—the hottest ticket in NASCAR!

First of all, I have to say that the whole racing extravaganza that is the Bristol Night Race is an experience I will never, ever forget.  It was my first NASCAR race, and people kept telling me I was in for something special, but...wow.  Double wow, is all I can say.

I need to thank Patsy Meridith and John Hart, my hosts (whose store, Natural Foods Market in nearby Johnson City, TN, is a marvel) and Bob and Nancy Hart, who allowed me to stay in their beautiful lake house on gorgeous Boone Lake.  Did I have a great view or what?  Patsy and John dove into the whole NASCAR experience with me and went waaaaay above and beyond the definition of friendship.  I had a great time with you, and I hope that one of these days, we'll all recover!

Eastern Tennessee was having a brutal and unusual heat wave, and yet, to a person, all the NASCAR folks I met, fans, staff, broadcasters, team members, were kind and very good-natured, frying in the heat as we all were.  I walked around and talked to people all over and was even more impressed than I already had been by the generous spirit of the NASCAR Nation.  People might be diehard devotees of one driver and despise another, but when it came to helping out a greenhorn too ignorant to live (aka me) every last one of them was more than willing to lend a hand or patiently explain or just let me have the thrill of discussing all the ins and outs of drivers and teams and strategies, etc. that I've been storing up in these few months of my introduction to a new and fascinating world.

Special thanks to new friends like Wesley and Lena Reed of Lexington, KY,  who had the parking space next to us and spent much of a very hot afternoon talking camping and racing info with me.  Appreciation, as well, to Lyle Russell Wheeler of the Racing Electronics trailer and Ed Miller of Louisville, KY, a fellow customer, for all the advice about both scanners and all manner of other race logistics.

Also, my heartfelt thanks to Roger Fredette, shuttle driver extraordinaire (and hey to his son Tyler!)  who saw to it that Patsy and I, along with a lucky group of our fellow passengers (including Kristie Bradley, Kimberly and Ann Young, and the lovely couple who winter in Harlingen, TX whose names I'm sorry I didn't get) had front row seats to watch the very cool and impressive parade of haulers and fireworks show on Thursday night.  I just wish my pictures had come out as fantastically as the experience!

I want to send greetings, as well, to Patrol Officer Ed Ragsdale of the Kingsport, TN Police Dept., who was kind enough to spare me a few minutes while ably and diplomatically handling the press of folks at the pit tunnel entrance who wanted to go where few are allowed.

Speaking of which, drum roll, please, because...Jean got a HOT PASS!!!!!!  (see tiny Jean celebrating beneath the humongous picture of Junior)  For those of you who don't know, that is A Big Deal for us mere mortals.  It meant I could be in the pit/garage area while the cars were on the track.  I spent most of the day on Friday watching Busch and Cup practice and qualifying, and it was unbelievably exciting to see in person all the activities I've watched the last few months on the SPEED Channel, especially.  The pit/garage area at Bristol is so small, compared to places like TMS, that it is jam-packed with haulers, inspection tents, tire sale area, fueling area...you really have to watch where you're going so as not to be in someone's way.

But boy, are you ever in the center of the action!  I gawked at the "claw"—the template that's used to measure the COT for compliance, couldn't believe I was standing right by the cars of all the drivers I admire and was bowled over, when I first emerged from the tunnel, to see the cars whizzing around the track within mere feet of me!  (And talk about banking!  They're driving around the slope of a mountain, I swear!)  Crew members are so hard at work  that I tried diligently to stay out of their way, but it was absolutely amazing to be standing right there so close! 

And, of course, there was the requisite amount of gawking at familiar faces:  The King Richard Petty, Elliott Sadler, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Raines, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Ray Evernham, Jack Roush, Richard Childress, Tony Eury, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya, Paul Menard, Scott Riggs...and the SPEED Channel folks like Larry McReynolds, Wendy Venturini, Rutledge Wood, Bob Dilner and Performance producer (my favorite SPEED show, along with Survival of the Fastest!) TP Barker.  TP was fired up because he was going to have Junior Johnson and his 3 car on the show, and it was a great show, guys!

Last, but certainly not least, was the Main Event—Saturday night at Bristol!   They were doing the world's largest card stunt to enter the Guinness Book of World Records, and the opening ceremonies still give me goosebumps, just describing them:  the whole stadium one big American flag, Lee Greenwood's always-moving song, God Bless the USA, a giant flag being parachuted onto the track, fireworks, the children of NASCAR teams singing the national anthem and jets flying overhead...I swear, you could not help having your heart just about pound right out of your chest!

Then, 160,000 fans screaming as the engines roared to life—it was all absolutely unforgettable, one of the most unique experiences of my life and one I will cherish forever.

Do I sound like a fan instead of just a writer doing research?  Yep!  From someone who said, only five months ago "Not only do I not know anything about NASCAR but I can't see what's interesting about cars going around in circles for hours"...boy, is my face red because this writer is well and truly hooked!

All this research will play into my November 2008 release, GO WITH THE FLOW, part of the Harlequin series NASCAR: Secrets and Legends which debuts in February 2008 as well as a novella I'll be writing for the NASCAR Christmas 2008 anthology from HQN Books.  Thanks again to all the people mentioned above and the many others (I have to make special mention of Gaylynn Sizemore, Mike Sobey and Quitman Liner) who have helped me find my way in this new and fascinating world.

Let's go racin'!