This past weekend I had the opportunity of a lifetime. Teamwork Online, NASCAR's job board hosting site put together a networking event at Daytona International Speedway. Very important people within the sport were represented and I knew as a Communications and Media Studies major, these are the types of events that I need to attend. Early Friday morning, two of my sisters and myself packed up and drove the seven hour trip to Daytona.
We got to our sorority sisters house at around 1:30 in the afternoon. As a side note, I can not tell you how important it is to make connections with sisters around the country. Stef Fussell, one of the Alpha Tau Chapter's alumnae opened her home to us and I could not be more grateful. Once we arrived to the house we decided to walk to the beach. It was 85 degrees and beautiful!
My meeting started at 6:00 so we headed back to the house. The awesome ladies of Alpha Tau came and picked up Lena and Emily while I went to my meeting.
It was very surreal for me on the way to the track driving through Daytona by myself. It really hit me when I was downtown passing the boardwalk and turning on to International Speedway Boulevard. This opportunity could change my life forever. Just the feeling of being in Daytona and knowing how much history was made in this town because of Bill France. His dream was to build a racetrack that could be a home for racing and create a series that would be the foundation of what all racing series strives for. His dream evolved into even more than he could imagine. My dream is to be able to work in the sport that he was able to help create and that I love. I know this seems a little stupid but I started to tear up when I pulled up to the track. I could not wrap around the fact that I was at Daytona International Speedway during Daytona 500 race weekend. It blew my mind.
The parking lot that I parked in was right across from the track. Right beside it was a huge glass building that was the corporate offices for NASCAR, ISC (International Speedway Corporation), and the Grand-Am Road Racing Series. I thought hopefully my future will one day be in that building. I made it to the meeting at just the right time I wanted to get there. I was a little bit early but wasn't late. When we got started, there was a speaker who introduced who he was and who the important Daytona and NASCAR officials were and then we were on our own to meet them throughout the suite. I made a lot of great connections and traded business cards with many of the officials. A lot of the important people I met were vice presidents of marketing for either the track, ISC, sponsor relations in NASCAR, and NASCAR itself. Just people that I really needed to meet in order to get my foot in the door for public relations type work.
After the meeting we received a ticket to the Camping World Series truck race and were allowed to sit anywhere in the grandstand. At first I decided to sit near start finish line until I got a text from a buddy that said he could get me into the infield. Let me tell you, it's great to have friends. So we got into the Sprint Fanzone and watched the truck race. It was amazing to see what a world class facility DIS really is. We were able to watch most of the truck race on top of the garage stalls. When the race was over we were allowed to go into Gatorade Victory Lane and take pictures and just be engulfed in the winner's circle celebration with the driver and team. While were waiting we saw Austin Dillon coming out of the 500 Club and I got his autograph and a picture of him. I also got a picture with Ron Hornaday Jr. and his autograph after the race.
In Gatorade Victory Lane with first time winner John King The next day we were up early to pack up and go to the track for the Nationwide race. I'm always so excited to broaden and share an experience that I love and I got to with Emily and Lena this past weekend. Everything is so much bigger than just what you see on tv. They had a blast and I really hope they enjoyed themselves this past weekend. We had to leave for home after the race because I had two midterms on Monday and could not stay for the 500. It's a blessing we didn't anyway because the Daytona 500 was postponed to Monday due to rain. All in all it was an amazing experience and trip that I will never forget.
Us being silly with Deebo the 3M mascot
