Brush with Nascar Greatness... ehhh yeah Submitted by: Jim Ford - 10/02/03 4:16 pm

Like most men, I've had a fascination with race cars for years and recently became interested in the sport Nascar Racing. Well go figure, my company is the main corporate sponsor for the #12 Ryan Newman car! And it so happens he made a promotional stop where I work along with a slew of merchandise, interactive games, one of the show cars, and lots of cool things. Okay, so my first stop was to take a look at one of the actual cars driven last year. It was amazing how they fit such power and control into this tiny little engine compartment. Under my truck, it's HUGE. And everything looked modular. Guess it has to be to be able to make in-race repairs during 30-second pit stops. This part was really cool. I also tried my hand at the tire-changing competition. It was so friggin' cool! Always wanted to handle one of those air guns. I never noticed before, but the lugs are pre-attached to the wheel via silicon and little springs. Make sense! You don't have to fumble around trying to set them. Went on to check out some Nascar videos, watched people in the race simulator, talked with some of the road and pit crew. Just amazed by some of this stuff. Then went over to get an autograph from Ryan Newman. Sat in line for 10 minutes, then they cut the line off. Didn't get an autograph. He continued just to hang around so I walked up and asked if I could take his picture. He totally ignored me! So asked him nicely, straight in front of him...still stone faced like I don't exist. Another lady was getting the same result so she whispered to me she'd go grab his ass if I'd take the picture... uhhh.... not for me. So then asked if I could get a picture shaking his hand. No acknowledgement at all. So finally, I figured, he's just some young asshole who thinks he's too good for his corporate sponsor. So I tried something a friend of mine that teaches self-defense once showed me. I just thrust my hand right below his center belt line. And of course, just like my friend said would happen, he automatically protected himself and grabbed my hand. I gave my camera to the girl behind me and smiled. Got the picture you see above. How cool is that? What a punk though! All in all, it was a fun experience and I picked up a couple freebie goodies they were passing out. Got to see a stock-car up close, met a professional race driver, changed a tire, and had fun in general! After checking the car out though, I don't think those painted on/sticker headlights are going to do much good! And what if it's raining? No windshield wipers!

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