We didn’t have much to
do on Saturday, so we were able to relax and to lunch at Bonefish Grill.We were looking for a bakery that was
supposed to be across the street, and we ended up in the wrong place but I
thought this office park was so cool!These
are all office buildings, like insurance companies, etc. It felt like we were
back in Alabama.
On the day of the race, we got up and ready and
left the hotel by 7:45 AM. We had to drive under the track to get to the
parking lot. We couldn’t resist taking a picture with this DeLorean that we saw
near where we parked. If you look closely, you can see a hoverboard in the
front seat.
The building that Kroger had rented was very
nice.
There were plenty of tables and chairs and they
had a nice breakfast set up. Tad from JTG Daugherty Racing got up and talked to
everybody and then turned some time over to Mark and Doug, who are the main
Kroger health guys. They talked about how food is medicine, and what we eat is
very important. We also heard from Brad Daugherty who says he was having
anxiety because the car 23 people kept talking trash about how they were going
to win. Then Joe Gibbs talked to us for a while and told us some stories. He’s
been around for a while. Apparently, he was a Hall of Fame football coach
first. He talked about the first time they won Daytona and they didn’t realize
they needed to stay for the winner’s circle and they just took the trophy and
left and went to Steak ‘n Shake. He said that’s their tradition now. After
that, we finished our food and sat around talking for a while. Michael did an
interview.
Then we walked over to the Midway area, which is
on the west side of the speedway. Michael Jordan was supposed to be with the
car 23 people, but it didn’t look like he had been there or maybe we had just
missed him. We got a golf cart ride back to the parking lot by the building.
At about 1:30 PM, they brought out lunch. We all
ate and then headed over to the pits. It was pretty cool to have the VIP passes
and get through wherever. They took us past the garages and to the field where
we could walk right up to the car.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. arrived and everybody had
pictures with him, including us.
Then they took Michael and me to the pit box so
we could watch and listen up there. It was really cool to watch everybody. The
Pennzoil guys next to us were doing calisthenics or something to get ready. I
guess they have to be in shape, too. I had the headphones on for quite a
few laps and then when I finally took them off and I could hear the cars, it
was overwhelmingly loud. It didn’t hurt my ears, but I could see how sitting
like that for a long time you could get a bad headache every time the cars go
by. Ricky was in the top 10 pretty much the whole time. Sometimes he fell
behind. When they were almost done with stage one, which is at 65 laps, Michael
and I came down out of the pit box.
We walked back to the Kroger building. I walked
back to the pier and took some video. It was kind of weird that there was a
lake in the middle of the track. That was actually a really nice place to watch
it because you could see so much of the track from the other side.
We stayed and watched the race on TV for a
little while. Then when there were about 30 laps left, we headed back over to
the pit. Ricky made it to first place and it looked like he could win the whole
thing. When there were only six laps left, the guy behind him bumped him and he
spun out. That was heartbreaking! I really find it hard to believe that there’s
absolutely no penalty when someone does that and knocks you out of the race.
What’s to stop somebody from doing it on purpose? Earlier, we had watched the
car in the pit next to us. The guy crashed and everybody in the box and in the
pit just packed everything up and left. I thought that was kind of sad, then it
was our turn to do that. After Ricky spun out and there were only six laps
left, they immediately started packing up.
We walked back to the building.
Liz and Stacey had
stayed behind at the building and watched on the big screen on the back patio.
Apparently, Ricky‘s parents were also there watching right along with them. We
hung around for a couple of hours waiting for the cars to clear out. I think it
was around 7 PM when the race ended and about 9 PM when we went to our car. We
drove back to the hotel and got gas and got to bed as quickly as we could so we
can get up super early the next morning. It was an amazing day and I’m so glad
we were able to experience it!
Here is what the car
will look like in the Atlanta race. It belongs to our marketing director and he
had it wrapped in the same logo that will be on the actual race car.
Michael and I had a fun dinner date for Valentine's Day. I've been wanting to try a new teppanyaki restaurant called Ryu. I made a reservation for tonight. Well, it was actually pretty disappointing and I wish we had gone to our favorite teppanyaki place, Osaka. I prefer it to any other one I've tried, including Benihana. Oh well, we still had a fun night!
Our ward had a wonderful Youth Conference this weekend! The kids read the entire Book of Mormon in less than 24 hours! They started after school on Friday and went until 11pm. Then, on Saturday morning, they started at 7am and didn't go home until about 10pm. They asked Michael to be King Benjamin, and his part was Friday night. They had fire pits set up and the kids made s'mores while he read Mosiah 2-6. I helped, by reading the "narrator" parts. The kids read in many different ways. Sometimes they read together, sometimes alone, sometimes there was a discussion, and sometimes they listened to the audio version. They kept it interesting and found many opportunities to get the kids up and moving and they provided wonderful meals. I was glad to be able to be there for most of the time. I did leave on Saturday for my blood donation appointment, but then I came back for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, Andrew was out of town at his DECA conference so he missed it, but Daniel and Jonathan were both there the whole time.
Jonathan was always surrounded by girls at mealtime
Michael as King Benjamin
I had so many layers on! It was cold!
The kids walked around the halls to get some exercise while the audio of the scriptures was played on the speakers.
See, here he is again with all the girls!
This was the biggest game of "musical" chairs I've ever seen.
Daniel made it almost to the end
Here is one of their activities, assembling boxes and building part of a wall. They used it for a game later.
