Texas Track Trek - 3 Sisters Racing

A phone call at 4:30 in the morning is never good. Thad couldn't make our Texas trip, he had been inadvertently detained. Thankfully that wasn't an indication that our entire trip was going to be cursed, although I missed him a lot. We were packed and ready to go by 9:30 am, only a couple hours late, which is pretty good for us. So Randy was our token man, along with the 3sisters and the Redheaded Stepsister, Pam Hardeman. We tricked the rental van out with driver flags and magnets, and headed south. We were hoping to make the IROC race on Friday night, which we did, with minutes to spare. The trip ticket said 7 hours and 54 minutes to the track, but that doesn't allow for 2 of the sisters' little bladders. I swear we stopped every 20 minutes. There was a lot of race traffic, one guy in Denton led us through the back roads of Texas to the track, helping us avoid some construction on I-35 that might have cost us the green flag of the IROC race. Texas is a beautiful facility, but we would have to admire that later. The most important thing was to get our IROC ticket and go sit down, and thankfully the howling Texas wind was to our back, scooting us along. NASCarla's favorite driver, Tony Stewart, won the IROC race, and even climbed the fence, just for her! All weekend the speeds on the track were fast, and the IROC race was no exception. Poor Steve Kinser, he's been on his top more in the IROC series than he ever has been in his Outlaws car! We stopped by Trackside on our way out, got to gander at Jeff Hammond and his "guns", and we always enjoy Darrell Waltrip. Saw a lot of freaky fans, some do's, some don'ts, but all of them were having fun. The trip to find our hotel in Arlington was just a precursor to how lost we would get all weekend. I've driven in a lot of cities: Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago. Fort Worth was by far one of the most confusing. Of course it might have been that we were laughing so hard most of the time, or that none of us could see the map without our glasses. We broke out the magnifying glass, and finally, about 10 pm, found our hotel. Seems like every time we stay somewhere, the hotel is under renovation. Such was the case in Arlington, the Holiday Inn was being transformed into the Admiral Hotel. Had to catch the Action Jackson bus early that next morning, so we stumbled into our room and got about 2 hours of sleep before that dreaded wake up call. Four women getting ready in one room, one word: chaos. Fortunately at the races hats are usually a must, so that cuts down on the hair time. The bus trips were all quick to the track, apparently Texas has really worked on their traffic problems that plagued them during the first couple of races. We sat in the back of the bus, as usual, met some really nice people from all over: Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania. The native Texans were very accommodating and friendly, and no one pooped on the bus! Kurt Busch won the Busch race on Saturday, and did some lame excuse for a celebration in the grass, finally resorting to a snow angel(?) in the Texas April sun. Whatever! Kasey Kahne made a lot cuter cowboy on Sunday, winning the Nextel Cup race going away. Matt and Tony just didn't have anything for him at the last, which I was kind of glad Matt didn't win, because I wouldn't have wanted Thad to miss that. Maybe next trip. Now we'll get all geared up for Kansas, unless we just can't stand it and decide to duck into Darlington...or Chicago...hey, Phoenix is this weekend, that's not so far away... Judy Kay

trip to the races is one of those favorite days. But Kathy Beth said the whole trip seems like a blur, it went so fast, and we're just now getting back to normal. (As normal as 3sisters can be.!) Our first mistake, as far as we're concerned, is not leaving right after work. Not only would Thad had been able to go, but we probably would have gotten more track time. NASCarla, Pam, Randy, Thad and I work nights, so we were worried about getting sleep, if we left at 2am in the morning. But the night before a road trip to a race is like Christmas eve: you toss and turn in anticipation, and I don't think any of us got any sleep.. We might as well of been driving! As it was, we didn't get to the track until minutes before the IROC race started, so there was no time to shop and take advantage of all the free crap that they give away, a huge perk for any race fan. Then after Trackside, we still hadn't found our hotel in Arlington. By that time we were running on pure adrenaline, which makes for a bunch of silly people. And the fact that we were on a tour, the rest of the weekend we were hoofing it around that massive facility just trying to keep on their schedule. That's why it's so nice to camp at the Woodlands during the Kansas races, you're right there at the track, it's just a matter of catching the last shuttle back to the campground before they pack it up for the night. Many people talk about how expensive it is to go to a Nextel/Busch weekend race. But in my view, it's well worth the money, a fairly inexpensive vacation. Not counting spending money, we spent about $600 for a weekend chockful of our favorite pastime: 3 races, Nextel Cup Happy Hour, meeting lots of fun people, and laughing until our sides hurt. Any race fan that has never been to a live race needs to put that on their calendar. Randy Meeder coined the best phrase the years we went to Talladega, anything goes, because "I'M ON VACATION!"

April 22, 2006 - Hindsight is 20/20. Last night Kathy Beth and I were talking about our trip to Texas Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago, and there are a few things we would have done different. Don't get me wrong, it was exciting and fun and some of the best days of my life. Every