My mom, Susan, and I have been watching NASCAR races for the past 15 years. We've been going to
Daytona International Speedway
in February and July for the past 11 years. We consider our Daytona
weekends our mother/daughter time, and always look forward to spending
the weekend with each other no matter what it holds -- rain or shine! We
also have been to
Homestead-Miami Speedway several times, and sat in the rain to watch
Tony Stewart win the 2011 NASCAR
Sprint Cup
Series Championship. However, this race season has been a difficult one
for us with Tony announcing his retirement. I wanted to go to as many
tracks as I could to see him one last time before he puts up his helmet.
I asked my mom last Christmas for tickets to see Tony at another
track this year and tried again last month for my birthday. My mom is
fighting blood and bone cancer, so she reluctantly told me she couldn't
handle it right now because she is much weaker. I understood, but I
couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Smoke in his last race of his
career. So, I bought her tickets to
Homestead-Miami Speedway
for Mother's Day. After all we have been through, between the ups and
downs, we have remained Smoke fans to the very end. It just wouldn't be
right for us to not be there when he takes his final checkered flag of
his NASCAR career.
No matter what occurs at the track, we have always built the most
wonderful memories. However, I don't think this past Daytona trip will
ever be topped! We started the
Coke Zero 400
weekend like we normally do, hanging around the Sprint FanZone watching
everything from practice to qualifying on Friday. We were on the
FanDeck when Tony walked by the garage just underneath us. I screamed
"We Love You, Tony" and he looked up, smiled and waved. My day was made.
I told my friends and even said to my mom, "OK, we can go back to the
hotel now!" Of course, we stuck around and continued our day shopping
and watching the NASCAR
XFINITY Series race.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. We arrived early to sign up for
one of the garage tours that fill up so quickly, and then we had some
time to kill in the Sprint FanZone. Two
Richmond International Raceway
staff members approached us there and asked if we had ever been to
Richmond before, and if we would like to participate in the first-ever
Fan Appreciation contest to win an ultimate trip to RIR in the fall. Of
course, I said yes.
We had a couple come sit with us and we talked as the rain continued
to fall. That's the great thing about NASCAR fans, they are like
long-lost friends you haven't met yet! My mom was worried I wasn't going
to be back in time from the garage tour and suggested we give the
tickets to our new friends. They were ecstatic as they had tried to sign
up and it was already full. They wished us luck and told us we hope you
win, and off we went to find the RIR staff.
Well, they must have been good luck because we won! We met Dennis Bickmeier, the President of
Richmond International Raceway,
who told us we were the Grand Prize winners, and it was an "Oh my gosh,
are you really serious right now?" moment followed by some tears and
hugs. Dennis was headed to the Daytona Media Center to announce Fan
Appreciation Weekend at Richmond and invited us to join him on stage.
It was a bit nerve-wracking looking out at a group of people who had
no idea who I was, but were about to tell my story. One question that
stuck out was when a man asked me, "Why do you like Tony? What is it
about him that makes you like him?" My initial response was, "Do you
really want the real story?" I explained to him that in my junior or
senior year of high school, I had a group of friends who were into
NASCAR. They would come over on the weekends and watch the race at our
house, and they told me I had to pick a driver to root for. At that
time, I had a big crush on a guy named Tony, so when I heard the name
Tony Stewart it stuck with me. From that moment on, I have been a
Tony Stewart fan.
Kimberly Meesters with Sprint also was on hand, and she asked me if
they were keeping us from doing anything. In my head, I thought
"Absolutely nothing!" because this was the coolest thing ever; but I
told her we actually have an area we go to every Daytona race to see the
drivers en route to the Drivers’ Meeting. Kimberly asked if we had ever
attended a Drivers’ Meeting, and I told her we hadn’t. To our surprise,
she then invited us to attend the Drivers’ Meeting — and with a great
big smile I said, “Sure!”
Before I knew it, the meeting was over and Kimberly flew up out of
her chair to grab Tony to come over and meet my mom and me. Dennis and
Kimberly explained to him I had won the first Fan Appreciation giveaway,
and was excited to see him at the track where he had gotten his first
NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series win. Tony told us Richmond was his favorite track. We also chatted about the
Coke Zero 400
race that night, and how he needed to play it smart to get those nine
points. He signed my winning case and our hats, and it was the greatest
moment for my mom and me to talk to him and have his undivided
attention.
After wishing Tony good luck, we went back to the media center and
Kimberly had one more surprise for us. On behalf of Sprint, she told us,
our tickets were upgraded to the
Daytona 500
Club. This is one of those things my mom and I have said we were going
to do one day, just to say we did it. We very graciously accepted, and
with a great deal of thanks, we headed to the
Daytona 500 Club.
As we settled in at the Club, I assume we looked like we didn't have
any idea what we were doing, but the staff was very accommodating and
made sure we knew all the ins and outs. We finally had a minute of
downtime when I could call my husband and my mom could call my dad, and
then we sat back and just enjoyed a Coke. My mom's Coke can had the song
lyrics, "A moment like this," and it truly was a moment some people
wait a lifetime for. A moment that we just had that might never have
been, but everything aligned and it was our moment. We went to the top
of the
Daytona 500 building to listen to the national anthem and watch the flyover and then took our seats on the start/finish line inside the
Daytona 500
Club. We watched the cars race by, pit stops so close it felt like we
were in the box with the crew, and a beautiful sunset over the track.
The craziest part is I still get to take another amazing trip to a
state and racetrack I've never been. I have a countdown clock going on
my phone to let me know how far away our trip is. I can't wait to have
another amazing experience with my husband, but I'll probably be just as
excited to call my mom and tell her all about it! For now, my awesome
fan experiences are coming to a pause, but will soon pick back up again
when my husband and I get on a plane to Richmond in September. No matter
what happens in Richmond or who wins the 2016 NASCAR
Sprint Cup
Championship, we will be NASCAR fans. We will probably never have a
connection to another drive like we do to Tony, and it will take some
time to get used to not seeing him on the track. But we will continue to
spend our weekends watching races, and making memories as a
mother/daughter racing duo for as many years as we can!
Thank you again from the bottom of my heart to all the staff at
Richmond International Raceway and Sprint who made the most amazing weekend for my mother and me. You have no idea how much it meant to us!
