At first I thought this week would be a bust. The Racing Powers that Be had really changed the weekend schedule around: ARCA ran Thursday afternoon (instead of in April with the Trucks & Indy cars), Racefest was moved to a the T-Bones Stadium - so we had to choose between the two - ARCA won. I'm pretty sure that if Racefest would have been held at the Legends, 3 Sisters Racing would have participated... But things turned out well - they always do!! Race fans were witness to an incredible afternoon of Kansas-style racing! #77 Parker Kligerman narrowed the points standings to only 15 points below Justin Lofton. The last couple of laps were 'standing on the seats screaming' intense, as we wondered if we would see Lofton pull a "Carl Edwards" on Kligerman... remember last year during the Cup race when Carl tried to make a pass on Jimmie in turn 4? We didn't even know that this was a points battle, didn't find that until watching the race on TV the following Monday. You miss a lot of inside info at the track, it's almost impossible to hear the announcer over the roar of the engines, or keep track of who's been lapped. But then again, you get to see a lot more racing, you don't have to watch only the cars that have the camera on them... And believe me, there was lots of racing going on this race! - NASCarla
The perplexing race-day question: Is the beer can too big, or the Koozie too small??? We may never know...
James' coworker, Matt Crystal, had generously given us his Track Pass tickets to the infield - thanks Matt! So, with full bellies, James and I hotfooted it through the gates, down the tunnel, into the infield. We met-up with Shannon and Angie at the car inspection station, posed for a pic, and barely made it through to Driver's introductions - tight security at this track, thought for a minute my Bodyguard would have to do a little "encouraging" to get us in!
Lesson Learned:
Yeah, we were in, but definitely rookie photographers. We got lots of drivers'
pics - but lookie here, they're all looking down, watching their steps. James
thought we had a great spot, so did I, but now that I look at the picture
below, it's a miracle we were able to get any good pictures at all. And getting
out - man, it was a little scary... only 4 exits back up into the seats, one
at a time. They might plan that a little different next year - hopefully we
can do it again!
Check out the Sprint girl checking out Jr.'s butt!
Thanks for the win Tony - NASCarla collects again! Rusty should have won, but shortly after we drew for drivers, he generously gave his pick to Tony's biggest fan - me! Thanks, Rusty! When we're at the races it's hard to tell what's going on inside the cars, turns out Tony won over Jeff Gordon by making a two-tire stop, Jeff was actually gaining, but ran out of laps. I was a little disappointed when I read what Tony said in Victory Lane... "Stewart was quick to alert bystanders of what his trip to Victory Lane really means. “The first thing it means is that I’m going to be late to Knoxville, Iowa tonight to run a dirt Late Model!” Just like no burnout from Mark Martin - Kansas shouldn't be dissed - it's a race, guys - you won! Jeez...
Ok now, where's our ride? Fortunately, by now we have our own GPS system in our heads - found our food! This is the best time to tailgate, waiting on the lots to clear, going over the race, watching our kids growing up before our eyes! To the left is Chase Cross, Dane's son, I finally got a smile (didn't take too much coaxing). And Zach Cansler, Pam Hardeman's nephew, is sitting in our Short Bus-chair in his 'jeorts' - jeans that look like shorts when you're sitting down because of the giant holes in the knees!
On Friday, Kathy Beth and Judy Kay hung out at Kansas Speedway, watching qualifying and Trackside. Kathy Beth stalked Jimmie Jimmie Jimmie, even got his autograph! They had their 1.5 seconds of fame, click here to see the proof. James and I were the only Above Average Race Fans to run out to Lakeside Speedway for the Late Model Showdown & Modified Shoot-out on Friday and Saturday nights. Every year there are fewer Cup drivers that show up for the special event, this year it was only Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards. At least we thought it was Carl, turns out it was his brother, Kenny. The regular Late Model Drivers kicked-ass, Bowyer and Edwards both citing car issues for their less-than-stellar runs. It's such a long, hard weekend, we decided that next year we will only go to the Friday night race. I know - I'm getting old!
As you can see, the Bivins' day didn't start out all that well! James had us back on the road in just a tad over 13.5 seconds, and even though we missed the meeting at the bank, we all managed to park fairly close together at the track - we are getting so good at tailgating! Pretty darned chilly, but we're resilient. After a light (yeah, right!) brunch, we went shopping!
See how much fun we have! The gold car pictured above is the original Papa John's delivery car, I thought that was so cool! To the right, Judy Kay does her famous Greg Biffle impression, who knew we had such talent in the group. And once again, Jan-Michael Vincent joins us... He never talks, so we're not really sure who his favorite driver is, and he only shows up when Rusty, Tina and Pam come to town. Hmmmm. Jackets sold well this weekend, looked like every trailer had something in camouflage!
Yes, that's what we are, COUGARS!
Joey Logano won the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway, beating Kyle Busch to the checkered flag by 0.57 seconds - and he stayed right-side up! Tina and I battled it out for the driver pot - whew, was that exciting! I had Joey - Tina had Kyle, so we didn't know who would walk with the money till the finish line!
Our meeting at the bank went a lot smoother Sunday morning, no flat tires or "Sorry, I can't get up that early" people. And best of all, the Morton's and Pam brought Krispy Kremes! And look who's on the cover of the NASCAR Scene magazine! Kathy Beth made it for them, but it could happen - for real - you never know! The picture to the far right is our 'draft' to the track - great job this year. Always see some comical sights along the way - usually it's fans, this time it was the giant Weiner Wagon. Hotdog - that's a crazy lookin' ride!
Look there! No, there! What are we looking at? New front page coming soon! We're goofy, but 3 Sisters Racing is always having a great time!
