Flashback Friday (part 17) - NASCAR

Gentlemen, start your engines....On this weekend three years ago, Tim and I went to our first NASCAR race in Richmond, Va.

The people watching was wonderful.

As experienced tailgaters due to our numerous trips to Virginia Tech during football season, we were prepared with a cooler of beer, snacks, chairs, blankets, etc.

At the time I was newly pregnant which meant that I looked exactly the same but I was forced to be the designated driver and drink O'Doul's. (yawn)

We had received complimentary tickets including VIP passes to get into the Nextel tent where they had free beer (!) and food plus a tour of pit road.

I knew nothing about NASCAR except it was a car race and I could rattle off a few drivers' names; Junior, Jimmie Johnson, Mario Andretti and Lightning McQueen.

Impressive, right?

Come to find out that by not drinking and listening in the pit I learned a few things:

• all of the cars use the identical tires and the same gas,
• there is no gas gauge in the car so the gas cans are weighed beforehand (125 lbs?) and then measured after a pit stop to see how much gas they actually have in the car,
• Mario Andretti doesn't drive in NASCAR and
• asking if they have a Lightning McQueen car is frowned upon by serious fans.

We had a great day. Too bad we never saw the race even though we had great tickets.

The reason?

My husband was in charge of the car keys and when we decided to move the vehicle before the race to be closer to a friend's tailgate, the keys were missing. Genius put them ever so carefully in his jeans pocket that had a hole in the bottom.

If you wanted to see a pregnant woman's (who doesn't look pregnant) head spin around in circles with smoke coming out of her ears, that was the day. Of course, the spare keys were in Virginia Beach, my parents were at the lake in Bumpass 45 minutes away and Genius who enjoyed the open bar said we can just break a window and sleep in the car.

Needless to say a family friend and Richmond native, Sunny, and my Mom drove to get us from the lake, drove us a hour east towards Virginia Beach where we met CC who drove a hour west to get the spare key. Then we went back to the raceway to get my car. Meanwhile, we could hear the race, it sounded like it would have been exciting to watch under the lights. Then we drove back to the lake just as the race came to the end and everyone was heading to their vehicles.

I did see the finish line earlier in the day.

As we were in the car heading back to the lake, Sunny said, isn't your anniversary coming up in a few days. I said, well if I don't kill Tim today, yes, it is.

The good news is we're going to the NASCAR race tomorrow, Tim's truck has keyless entry, I'm not pregnant and we have a designated driver.

Touchdown! Oops....wrong sport....checkered flag!?!