The Day I Felt Famous {Nascar Fans Must Read!}

Hey friends!  Happy Monday! 

Guess what?!  I get to see my hubby and boys tomorrow, and I cannot wait!!  They will be flying out here around noon, so please pray for safe travels. And pray for their necks too, because I might just squeeze them off!  :)

Today, I want to share something with you that is so surreal and so crazy and happened about a year ago!  I shared some of the adventure with you on the blog last year, but I never got to share with you the part where my husband and I totally felt we were famous. 

Last year, we traveled to Las Vegas and teamed up with Lowe’s for a Habitat for Humanity build at the Kobalt 400.   I shared on my blog the most important part of the trip, which was the build, and you can read about it HERE.  But the day after the build, was one of the most fun days of my life!  It was a day that my husband and I kept pinching ourselves and saying, “Is this really happening to us?”

The day started off with a bang when I got to talk to Gary Levox of Rascal Flatts for a few minutes before they sung the National Anthem at the start of the race.  I told him about my son, Jonathan, and his music.  {It’s just like a mom to try and “plug” her son, right?}

One of Cy’s favorite parts was going into Jimmy Johnson’s car hauler and seeing all of the tools inside!  That place was spotless!!! Which is pretty impressive since it is managed mostly by men! :)

 

We got to “walk the red carpet” to the driver’s meeting that they have before the race and listen to them go over the rules.  We were sitting by Nascar legends like Jeff Gordon and Dale Ernhart Jr.   You have got to watch the video below because I share footage of us actually walking the red carpet!!

And if THAT wasn’t cool enough, we got to meet Jimmy Johnson, right there by his car before he got ready for the race!

By this time, we thought we had died and gone to heaven, but then the wonderful Lowe’s crew told us the race was getting to start, and we needed to take our seats.   We thought we were going to be sitting in the bleachers, but NOOOOOOOO, we were right there on pit row with the crew!  NOT KIDDING!

Do y’all see us?!!  We are BEHIND the blue line where the “important” people are.  {wink!}

We were ten feet away from the pit crew and had a front row seat to watch them change the tires at record breaking speed.  It was UNBELIEVABLE to watch how fast they change those times.  (You can see that in my video too!)

At this point, Cy and I could not believe how lucky we were!  We knew there was nothing that could top this experience, until….

they asked us if we want to sit in the pit box with the crew chief, Knaus.   SAY WHAT?!!!   Y’all, WHO gets to do this stuff?!!  

Nascar fans would pay millions to be sitting where we were sitting!

And to top it off, they let us wear the same headphones as the pit crew, so we could hear Knaus talking to Jimmy Johnson while he was driving.  CRAZY COOL!

I took these pictures with my phone, so I was within arms length of Knaus.  Cy and I were quiet as mice while we were up there!

So at this point, seriously, we were floating on a cloud.  Stick a fork in us.  We. Were. Done.  There was NO WAY this day could get any better!

Until….

They told us to head down to the Winner’s Circle after the race!!!

Since Kobalt was the sponsor of the race, we got to go down to the winner’s circle to watch the ceremony.  But not only did we go back down the red carpet to the ceremony, we were on the bleachers behind the podium with the winner, Kevin Harvick and his pit crew!   I found this picture online to prove it!  

By this time, Cy and I were delirious with laughter and disbelief.  We had tv cameras and ESPN filming us and confetti flying all over us!  Completely surreal!  

It was a day for the record books!  

I will admit that I had not watched a lot of Nascar races up to that point, but after that day, I totally understood all of the hype and why there are so many die hard Nascar fans.  It was a super fun atmosphere and very exciting.  We’ve always been “Lowe’s Fans” but now we are “Jimmy Johnson Fans” as well!  Cy and I have had fun watching him race throughout this past year.  

Here is the video I made.   If you are not a Nascar fan, but know someone who is, please share it with them.  They will totally appreciate what a amazing experience it was! :)