reddog
Well-known member
My wife and I celebrated our 40th anniversary on Sunday, the 26th. She was supposed to spend the week in Florida for a girls week for our anniversary , I was just going to go fishing. 
About a month ago her group fell thru and cancelled the trip. That left me with finding something to do on short order for our 40th.
I made a few phone calls, and checked flights, lodging and car rental . Then I sprung it on her. Do you want to go to Florida for our anniversary..... And some racing. Sure she said, so we booked flights into Tampa, for the Winternationals at East Bay Speedway. (360 winged sprint cars). We flew in on Sunday,rented a car and headed to Naples to spend 3 days with friends. Was supposed to go fishing on Wednesday but it rained. Basically, we toured and sight seeing and relaxed. We were going to head to East Bay on Thursday for opening night.
About 930 my phone buzzed.... Text from Kyle Larsons mom. Your Daytona 500 Hot Passes are at the credential window. Enjoy.. Wow. Does that change our plans . We talked a little and basically decided the we would forego the opening night and head from Naples to Daytona Thursday morning and collect our Hot Passes and attend the Duals that night. We met up with classmates for brunch in NorthNaples,then headed to Daytona.
Getting thru credentials was a breeze and we headed for the speedway. Holy cow is that joint huge. Our hot passes allowed us anywhere on the grounds when the track wasn't live,and allowed us on pit lane during the race. We toured around the infield, talked to Kyle, and decided to watch the duals from the stands. We went across before the race and watched in awe at our first Nascar race. After the race,we headed back west to our resort and sprint cars on Friday and Saturday night.
Friday night found us at East Bay dirt track. (Dirts our favorite) 65 winged sprints had checked in (66the night before). Racing was great up to the feature. The feature was a follow the leader affair ona rubbered up track, disappointing,but fun,nonetheless . Saturday the feature more than made up for it . Extremely good racing with lots of passing for the lead. We headed back to the resort as we had to leave early to go to Daytona.
We spent the first half of the 500 from the viewing area on top of the garage. With 60 to go, and Kyle running P5, we headed for his pit box.
We got there about lap 140, listening intently on the 42 scanner channel. Crew chief said he wanted to pit for the last time at lap 158. Thelaps clicked off with Kyle running well. A yellow came out at lap 155 and they decided to pit. I went to the pit wall and videod the pit stop. 2 tires and a can of fuel and away he went.
The laps clicked off again and with 15 to go he was running in the 4th position.
5 laps to go and he made a spectacular pass for 3rd. Wow, this is getting exciting now. Running 3rd with 3 to go and the leader runs out of fuel. P2 with 2 to go, he drops down and passes the leader and takes over the lead and also takes the white flag. Kylie's leading the Daytona 500 on the final lap. Holy cow!
Going into turn 2, the fuel runs out, and he coasts in for 12th position. Wow, so close! When they pitted at 155, I think they knew it would be a crap shoot whether he would make it or not. Heartbreaker, for sure, but he took it well.
First Nascar race. Not sure well go again,but it sure was fun. Got home last night about 5am. Ugh..
About a month ago her group fell thru and cancelled the trip. That left me with finding something to do on short order for our 40th.
I made a few phone calls, and checked flights, lodging and car rental . Then I sprung it on her. Do you want to go to Florida for our anniversary..... And some racing. Sure she said, so we booked flights into Tampa, for the Winternationals at East Bay Speedway. (360 winged sprint cars). We flew in on Sunday,rented a car and headed to Naples to spend 3 days with friends. Was supposed to go fishing on Wednesday but it rained. Basically, we toured and sight seeing and relaxed. We were going to head to East Bay on Thursday for opening night.
About 930 my phone buzzed.... Text from Kyle Larsons mom. Your Daytona 500 Hot Passes are at the credential window. Enjoy.. Wow. Does that change our plans . We talked a little and basically decided the we would forego the opening night and head from Naples to Daytona Thursday morning and collect our Hot Passes and attend the Duals that night. We met up with classmates for brunch in NorthNaples,then headed to Daytona.
Getting thru credentials was a breeze and we headed for the speedway. Holy cow is that joint huge. Our hot passes allowed us anywhere on the grounds when the track wasn't live,and allowed us on pit lane during the race. We toured around the infield, talked to Kyle, and decided to watch the duals from the stands. We went across before the race and watched in awe at our first Nascar race. After the race,we headed back west to our resort and sprint cars on Friday and Saturday night.
Friday night found us at East Bay dirt track. (Dirts our favorite) 65 winged sprints had checked in (66the night before). Racing was great up to the feature. The feature was a follow the leader affair ona rubbered up track, disappointing,but fun,nonetheless . Saturday the feature more than made up for it . Extremely good racing with lots of passing for the lead. We headed back to the resort as we had to leave early to go to Daytona.
We spent the first half of the 500 from the viewing area on top of the garage. With 60 to go, and Kyle running P5, we headed for his pit box.
We got there about lap 140, listening intently on the 42 scanner channel. Crew chief said he wanted to pit for the last time at lap 158. Thelaps clicked off with Kyle running well. A yellow came out at lap 155 and they decided to pit. I went to the pit wall and videod the pit stop. 2 tires and a can of fuel and away he went.
The laps clicked off again and with 15 to go he was running in the 4th position.
5 laps to go and he made a spectacular pass for 3rd. Wow, this is getting exciting now. Running 3rd with 3 to go and the leader runs out of fuel. P2 with 2 to go, he drops down and passes the leader and takes over the lead and also takes the white flag. Kylie's leading the Daytona 500 on the final lap. Holy cow!
Going into turn 2, the fuel runs out, and he coasts in for 12th position. Wow, so close! When they pitted at 155, I think they knew it would be a crap shoot whether he would make it or not. Heartbreaker, for sure, but he took it well.
First Nascar race. Not sure well go again,but it sure was fun. Got home last night about 5am. Ugh..
