I woke up on Saturday and I ran to the window like a little kid does a Christmas tree on Christmas morning. YES! Its not raining. We might get the chance to race after two months of rain delays. So I get dressed and start helping my dad pack everything in to the trailers to get ready for the day. Then my grandma calls and says that she is going too. 

This is exciting. I love it when my grandma comes to the races with us. She has this calmness to her that really helps me when I get anxious or nervous or stressed. We have everything loaded into the trailer and we climb in the trucks and we are off to the races. While we are driving up there I am on the phone about three times. My dad and grandma joke around about how I cannot live without the phone. Of course I’m on the phone a lot, I am a teenage girl with a lot to say. 

We got to pit next to everybody we saved a spot for ( Tony, Ricardo, Nick, Todd, Matt, and Doug.). Of the 35 dwarfs that were there, 10 of us were all pitting right next to each other. Then we go to the drivers meeting. After that point the day was just a big rush. It was fun – but everything was rushed. 

I did okay in the heat. I got lucky and some other cars spun in front of me and I ended up finishing third. I go to look at the line ups and I start first in the ‘B’ main. I thought I should have made it straight to the ‘A’ but I didn’t. I went and told my dad and so he went up and talked to the lady running the line ups and she said only top two made it straight in. 

Now I was really nervous. What if I don’t make it in? Well, I get ready to go out and wait in staging. Then it comes time to go onto the track, but my car won’t start. GREAT. If I get a push start from the push truck, then I will have to start in the back. I HAD the pole of the ‘B’ main which is good. If I am with the guys in the front, I can some what stay up with them. If I am in the back its different. I am not good at passing cars. So my car isn’t starting then the official walks up to me and says that I am going to get pushed. 

It didn’t seem like I had a choice in the matter. I felt the bumper of the truck hit mine and then my car started and I drove off. I was hoping that didn’t count as a push. Later I found out that was my dad who came up in his car behind me to push me so I didn’t have to have a truck. Once again my dad had my back. 

That’s one of the nice things about being father and daughter and racing together – we have each other’s back. I would have pushed him if he was in the same position. 

However, I didn’t know at this point that it was my dad who came to push me. I go around the track and get into my spot in the line up but then the official calls me over. I am sure he’s calling me over to tell me that since I had a push I have to start in the back. 

What he ended up telling me was that I really made it into he ‘A’ main and that I could pull off the track. Now I didn’t have to worry about transferring because I made it in. only one thing – my dad was still out there. He didn’t transfer yet. I watched him in the ‘B’ and he was FAST. I knew I was in trouble for the ‘A’. He finished 2^nd and so he made it too. 

The ‘A’ wasn’t going too well for me. I couldn’t find a place with no ruts. There were a few cautions. Then on about lap 15 I get passed by three cars at one time, one of them being my dad. Then maybe it was the next lap I saw those cars way on the top of the track. I went on the very bottom of the track. The next thing I know there is somebody passing me on the bottom. I go to give them a little room to race. Then the next thing I know I feel somebody hit me and I look over to my right and I see the nose of a car looking right in my window. 

What I felt as somebody hitting me was my dad on his way to flipping. Then I come out of the corner and I see the red light on. This means the car flipped. I assumed it was the one that I saw the grill of. This is when I start to freak out. I look over and IT IS in fact my dads car. OOOHHHH NOOO. My dad flipped. I’ve seen about a million flips in my life since I have grown up basically around racing, but it was different. It was my dad. 

Normally you watch the flip and the driver is okay. For some reason though, it really scared me. My dad flipped and it was my fault. I kept thinking “ I really hope he’s not hurt”. I see two officials talking to him. Then there is an official by my car and I call him over. The officials have radios so I asked him if my dad was okay. He said that they had radioed over that he was fine. 

I was so shaken up and by this point I was a little upset and so I think the official saw. He stayed with me for a little while and sat on my nerf bar and talked to me. He wasn’t there very long because he probably had to go do his job and walk around and make sure everything was okay. I saw my dad’s car being towed off the track and it didn’t look pretty. 

Well the yellow light came back on and there were only four laps left. I didn’t do much those last four laps but when the race was over I was happy to be able to go into the pits and see my dad. My dad had a sense of humor about it. His hood was crunched like it was a balled up piece of paper. He made jokes about how he was going to was his car like it was no big deal when really it was crunched. 

Of course I didn’t think it was very funny. A few days have passed now and I’m over it. I think it helps to know that some people said it wasn’t my fault. There are a few different opinions out there as to what happened, but the most popular seems to be that he hit the rut and that’s what caused it. 

Now we are fixing the cars and trying to get them out for the next race. Now that we have that out of the way, hopefully we can go and show everybody what we are really made of and how this season is really going to go. I’m not saying I am going to win (even though my dad probably will), but I am saying that hopefully all the other nights will be better than that one.