Family Fun Day at Darlington

We had one of the best family fun days in a long time~~that lasted ALL DAY long at Darlington Raceway.

A friend of Mike’s now works for Kevin Harvick Inc. She is the PR Director for the #33 truck driven by Ron Hornaday Jr. in the Craftsman Truck Series.

She set us up as special guests and we were allowed to follow her and Ron Hornaday all around the track/garage/pit. All the boys kept saying, “this is SO cool”. We all had a great time seeing the behind scenes of racing. We followed the truck through the inspection process starting at the outer dimensions and sizes. We then went on to the rear inspection, and also the final inspection of the engine. The pit crew guys had to push the truck all the way around and those are some strong guys. Wesley and Conner did say they thought the truck actually looked smaller than it does on tv. The four tires used on the trucks stacked up stand taller than Conner/Adrianna. The new gas cans that were started this year are taller than Conner.

We were walking around in the garage area, trailers, lounge, pit boxes, there was not any where we could not go. Conner had Ron Hornaday autograph the side of his head. He laughed and said he had never done that before and called his wife over to take a picture of him and Conner. She took a picture for him to keep of the first time he ever signed a head.  Adrianna and Wesley had him sign their arm. After that walking around we were looked at and stared of course because here is this boy with a Mohawk and in black sharpie marker a name and number on the side of his head. I saw Mike Helton and we were able to go up to him and speak to him, he also had a picture made with us. Mike had him sign his Alabama hat he was wearing.

We went to the driver’s meeting they have before a race. It was in a canopy tent with folding chairs, it covered~ reminding the drivers of the speed on pit road, race hard, be safe, thanking everyone for coming and then a prayer. We proceeded to follow to driver introductions and on the way there I pointed out Kasey Kahne to the kids. They had been asking and on the lookout for him since we arrived and heard he was there. They ran up to him with Adrianna grabbing the back of his uniform and when he turned Kasey asked if he would sign Conner’s head. He looked down at Conner and said, “sure, no problem”. We laughed it seemed like that was something normal for him to sign a kids head. We really got the looks from then on.

After driver introductions we then proceeded down to pit road to stand with Ron by the truck for the Pledge of Allegiance, singing of the Star Spangled, and the invocation. It was an experience. We stood around taking pictures and talking to Ron, Lindy (his wife), Katey, crew chief, and others that would stop by. Before it was time to move to the pit box.

We were in the pit box for the whole race; it was so close to the action. During the warm-up laps Katey took the kids to the front of the box and let them sit on the wall as they came by for a lap. Then we moved them to the back of the box out of the way.

Adrianna saw that there was pink paint on the tires and asked, “why was there pink paint on the tire.” The crew guy Kevin said, “it was paint.” She replied, “I know that it is pink paint, I want to know WHY it is there.”  He told her that it was painted pink on the lug nuts and bolts so when the car came in they could see them easy and help them to be quicker changing the tire. She looked at him and said, “Thank you.”

We had an awesome day and I am sure I am forgetting a lot it was a great experience one that we hope the kids will never forget. So far they have been unable to stop talking about Conner having his head signed, the pink lug nuts, the fact I had my picture taken, wearing headphones to hear the crew and driver, seeing the cars drive right by us going into the garage, how nice everyone on the team and everywhere was, and of course the crash that happened at the start/finish line that was right in front of us.

Most of all we are very thankful to Katey for arranging all this and for making us feel so special.