A Voice For The Fans ~ Eldora: When "Awesome" Isn't Awesome Enough
7/26/2013
PattyKay Lilley
Good day
gentle readers. A warm welcome is bid to all of you and to our assigned reader
for the day, whomever he or she might be. This humble
missive should have been written in the wee hours of Thursday morning and ready
to see sunlight only hours after the checkers flew at Eldora. Alas, we of some
age must heed the call of Morpheus to join him in the land of slumber at some point. That, and my brain tends to shut down
like a factory at 5:00 on Friday when I'm tired, and it was midnight.
Because
in my world a Friday column is written and in the hands of the editor by the
close of business hours on Wednesday, I had no way of including in this week's regular
edition the Mudsummer Classic held at Eldora Speedway
on Wednesday night. #MudsummerClassic
for the many thousands of Twitter tweeters that watched the race with me.
I found a way. It's called write another one.
Long
before the sun set over Eldora on Wednesday, racing was already underway, with
qualifying runs beginning at 5:00PM here on the right coast. Those didn't make
it to the TV in your living room, but were available via the Live Leaderboard
at nascar.com and provided the background music for my Chinese style evening
repast. (Fancy word for "supper" don't ya know)
At 7:00 came
the heat races that serve to further set the starting order for what would be
called the "A Main" at many events. Though these were said to be
available via the Live Leaderboard as well, I soon abandoned that little toy,
as it was running well ahead of the obviously delayed TV broadcast. **Note to
nascar.com... You might want to rethink that practice. Either stay with the TV
or don't even bother. No one, on Wednesday night, wanted to miss a thing
happening on track and for sure and certain didn't want to know the outcome before
having seen it. In short, don't tell us how the movie ends.
Forgive
me gentle readers if this column contains more of the first-person singular
pronouns than usually found here. I try mightily to keep me, myself
and I out of my writings, but the only observations I have of the racing
at Eldora on Wednesday night are my own, so please indulge me. As noted, I
spent the evening with a vast and diverse cross-section of America and indeed,
the world, known as Twitter. Being somewhat of a cross-section my own self,
representing the past as a living part of it and the present as a functioning
septuagenarian in a young folks world, put simply... I had a blast!
In the
short hours it took to run what many will call the best race ever, I was
heartened, enlightened and quite humbled. Forget trying to teach the kids about
the sport's history. Instead, show it to them! And that's exactly what was done
Wednesday night. Yes, a lot of you younger fans seem to enjoy tales of yore
such as the ones I write from time to time, but last night you saw with your
own eyes and felt with your own emotions much of what made my generation fall
in love with the new upstart sport of stock car racing. It's just plain fun!
I don't
believe I've ever seen or heard the word "Awesome" used so many times
by so many people in one place at one time. It was... well... awesome! To those
that asked questions of me or sought explanations of terms and rules unfamiliar
to many, there was no need to thank me. I'm always happy to oblige if it's
within my scope of knowledge to share an answer. On Wednesday night, I was just
thrilled that in most cases, I had that answer. I grew up learning it.
Yesterday,
well before the racing began, I read a discussion between race fans as to
whether these young whippersnappers could possibly perform a power slide on
dirt as well as the good ol' boys of another era. My
answer, both then and now is a resounding "Hell yes!" Of course, when
a couple of those young whippersnappers turned out to be 58-year old Ken
Schrader and 61-year old Norm Benning, I was
screaming for them as loudly as anyone else in the crowd. How
about that Norm, riding the wall... quite literally... while taking hit after
hit, but hanging on in the heat race to transfer to the Main Event. Way
to go Norm, you young whippersnapper you!
In the
end though, after three separate segments totaling 150 miles, it was youth that
triumphed over experience, as 23-year old Austin Dillon, a very practiced dirt
racer in his own right, took the checkers despite the hard challenge repeatedly
offered by soon-to-be 21-year old Kyle Larson, to the hoots, hollers and obvious
approval of the sell-out crowd at Eldora. I think most everyone there was in
agreement with my feeling that it didn't matter so much who won the race, but
that the race was held and it was a smashing, barn-burning, Katie-bar-the-door
success!
Everyone
with an interest in racing that has access to a column, blog, forum or other
means of putting words on this thing we call the Internet has already done so,
so why am I adding my humble voice to the mix? Because through this column I
represent the voices of a multitude of fans and they want to be heard along
with everyone else. It's hard to issue individual thanks, as there are so many
contributors to that wonderful event whose names I don't even know. If some are
omitted, please know that they belonged here.
Tony
Stewart, Roger Slack and the entire staff at Eldora Speedway, both hired and volunteer, that worked before, during and after the historic
gala event... Thank you, from the bottoms of our race-loving hearts. The show
was awesome, (There's that word again) from the Fan Salute to the fireworks at
the end.
Mike
Helton... I know you said you were only there as a fan, but I didn't believe
that for one minute. I know that you, and your love of racing, had a definite
hand in making the race at Eldora happen, and speaking for many, many fans that
had such a wonderful, or might I say awesome, time... Thank you Sir.
To all at
NASCAR and the Camping World Truck series in particular, many thanks from the
fans to each and every one of you that contributed in any way to making the Mudsummer Classic the smashing success it was.
Thanks
to the teams, and drivers... young and old... who put so much time and effort
into becoming a part of the history being made at Eldora Speedway. Likewise,
thanks to the fans... young and old... that came out in droves, both to the
track and to their TVs, to watch that history being written and to add to it
words of their own... the most commonly heard of which was certainly,
"Awesome!"
I can't
think of better words with which to close this accolade than with the words of
my closing tweet last night, indicating the perfect end to a perfect evening.
"Close it out with fireworks!!!! PERFECT! OK God, I'm ready now. I've seen
Heaven and I approve!"
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay
[email protected]