Track walk at Charlotte Motor Speedway Coca-Cola 600

Track walk at Charlotte Motor Speedway Coca-Cola 600
Track walk at Charlotte Motor Speedway Coca-Cola 600

Monday, October 14, 2013

Post-race blues? Visit the race shops!

Caspian pretends to be Miles
On the Sunday following the Bank of America 500, my sons asked me, "When are we going back to the races?" I said to them, "We just went to two races in the past two days! What more do you want?" So, with my father-in-law in town, and having the day off of work on Monday, we went back up near the speedway and even over to the Huntersville and Mooresville area to check out a couple of race shops. I figured it would help us overcome the post-race doldrums.
Boys in the harness

    Of course, our first stop had to be Hendrick Motorsports. It's got an amazing museum that can only be rivaled by the Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte, but Hendrick's is FREE! The boys enjoyed strapping into the four point harness driver's chair and my father-in-law and I enjoyed looking at the historical and race winning cars that filled the museum. It's a must-see if you are near the speedway.

Joe Gibbs with the boys
Game Plan for Life
by Joe Gibbs 
Next, we had to swing by Joe Gibbs Racing. While I had already been to this shop before (as mentioned in other posts, my boys are diehard Kyle Busch fans), we had an added surprise. Joe Gibbs was in the house! After we'd already toured the shop and watched them putting on the vinyl wrap on an M&M car, we headed through the store, then back out to the front and there he was! A small line of men had formed and once to the front I asked Joe to take a quick picture with my boys. Not only did he pleasantly oblige, but he also signed books for my father-in-law and I and gave them to us. What an awesome guy!

Next, we stopped by the KBM shop (Kyle Busch Motor Sports) since we were pleasantly surprised by getting signatures from his crew at the speedway a few days prior (see here).  While we saw Bubba in the shop, there were no photo opportunities, but we did have a great discussion with the shop's manager. I found it amusing to see that around her desk were a bunch of recent trophies including the Dollar General 300 trophy Kyle had won a few days prior, and the paintball trophy he won at the paintball event where I was present (see here).  She said that she just didn't have enough display spots for all of his trophies! (It must be such a problem to have so many!)



Lastly, we stopped by Penske racing. I was very impressed by the view of the shop from their second floor terrace. I'd go so far as to say that I'd give it the "Nascar Newbs Best Shop View Award." While many shops have
the cars miles away from the spectators, and some don't even have a view of the shop, but at Penske you could see everything that the mechanics were doing to the cars. If I were a Penske mechanic I'd feel like a fish in an aquarium.

If you get the post race day blues, stop by the shops! It helps to soothe the pain of having to wait months to see another race...

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