Tuesday....finally Race Day

So yesterday (Tuesday) was FINALLY race day. My ticket said that my seat was in the Earnhardt section way up top the stands. I was not going to sit there. There were so many empty seats on the frontstretch in the Champions grandstand that I decided I was going to sit there. I bypassed one of the ushers and just sat right down. I sat right in front of Dale Jr's pit stall.

Here's where I sat compared to the start/finish line

They got the cars rollin out on pit road and started at 11 and raced for a good bit...and then the rain/mist/nastiness came. It was freezing outside! I couldn't believe how cold it was. I knew that it was going to get really chilly when they started racing, so I wore my Amp Jacket, and hoodie, and t-shirt. I was pretty warm compared to the idiots who were wearin flip-flops, t-shirts, and shorts. It was pretty much one of the longest races of my life. They had to keep throwing the caution out, run a bunch of laps under caution, and then they'd get the track dry and go back racing. One time during the race they had to stop the cars on pit road and cover them up. That shower only lasted for about 10 minutes.

This is my not so happy face sitting in rain and I look like a boy...eww.

The racing was pretty good throughout the race. Gordon was the class of the field for the most part of the race and he won. Him and Jimmie's battle throughout the last part of the race was awesome! Side by side racing for the last twenty laps. It was great. Overall a great weekend. Until next year....

Dale Jr.

Kasey Kahne...nom nom nom Gordon's burnout Check out this dude in the red...I think he's more happy than Jeff Gordon.

Race Week to Race Weekend to Race Week...

So it's Monday (Labor Day) and I'm chillin at the house. Bout to eat me some pizza and study some Spanish for my test on Wednesday. But let's rewind back to Friday.

Friday, I got out of class early bout 2:15. My game plan was that I was going to head to Atlanta Motor Speedway's ticket office buy my truck ticket for that nights race, go to Discount Tire where Brad Keselowski was supposed to be signing autographs at 4, and then head back to the track to volunteer for Speedway Children's Charities. Well, when I was passing Discount Tire I saw that there was already a line out there so I pulled over to go check it out.

Apparently he was already out there signing! So I got in line and a Discount Tire employee gave me a goodie bag. Hell yeah free stuff! I got 2 koozies, 2 chapsticks, a tire gauge, a pen, a decal, and a hero card (a card that has the driver's stats and bio). So I got up to Brad and congratulated him on his Bristol win last week and asked how his ankle was. (A few weeks ago he crashed hard at Road Atlanta and hurt his ankle) He said his ankle was a little sore but getting better. So I asked for a picture with him and told him good luck. He was such a nice guy! I have a really good feeling he's going to great when they do race because he's on fire right now and was fastest in the first practice session. Anyways here's a picture of me and the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion and driver of the number 2 Miller Light Dodge.

After I met Brad I headed to the track, bought my ticket, and volunteered with Speedway Children's Charities. I had like two in a half hours before the race and figured I ought to do something to pass the time. Speedway Children's Charities benefits local charities around each race track that their at. I sold raffle tickets to race fans around the track. There weren't many people there at the time I was trying to sell so I didn't sell many. I was sweating like crazy and wondered if I could get in the infield. The group of friends I had staying in the infield wouldn't mind if I came and hung out a little bit. I just didn't have the credentials to get in...

The track has a shuttle service with golfcarts and school buses. So luckily I found this guy that was able to take me in the infield without gettin checked for credentials. So I hung out with basically my whole fantasy racing team for bout an hour and a half for cup practice and then went to the stands to watch the truck race.

This is how I enjoyed my Friday night. :)

So Saturday I head to the track about three and walk around and got a ton of free stuff as usual. My sister Megan came after work with me to the track. It was her first NASCAR experience and we had a good time. I told her she should've came in her Hooters outfit and gotten me a Hooters shirt and I could've played her PR rep and we could've gotten in the infield and maybe have met Dale Jr. It could've worked though. That's free publicity and promotion for Hooters I'm tellin you! But anyways, we sat in traffic forever and that was bout the end of the night. Oh and Carl Edwards won the Nationwide race. woohoo. (sarcasm) I wanted either Kasey Kahne or Harvick to win but at least it wasn't Kyle Busch. I despise him.

Sunday was when it all went downhill...the forecast all day was cloudy, gloomy, and rainy from that hurricane or tropical storm. My aunt and I got to the track around 2:30. We walked around for a bit and it started drizzling... I try to always get to the track early cause you never know what the traffic is going to be like. When we were walking around some of the drivers were making appearances at some of their sponsors events outside the track and we randomly meet David Ragan driver of the number 6 UPS Ford. He didn't have a line at all for people to meet him. There was just a couple people crowded around him so I went and got his autograph and picture with him. He was really nice too.

After we met David, my aunt and I go to one of the campgrounds where they have some vendors out. They usually have a lot more selection of driver merchandise and random RANDOM things to purchase. I spot this table that has different kinds of hats...and I see it. This one vendor has I call it an Asian rice picking hat. It's made out of some kind of straw. I've always wanted one of these. I ask the man how much it is and it's only five dollars! Out of the purchases I made this weekend, this has to be my favorite. The guy sellin it said if you buy that you're going to be wanting chicken chow mien. I said well I am half Asian so I've got to stick to my heritage! He just started crackin up!

I took this picture because my sister Ashley wanted me to pose like this. I was glad to do it.

My aunt and I sat in the truck for a little bit waiting and then we went back out in front of the track. Well not even five minutes of the leavin the truck it started pouring! Luckily I brought a small umbrella but still. It sucked. We went and sat up in the stands and our seats were so high that they were being covered so we didn't have to sit in the rain thank god. When we sat down the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert had just began. They were pretty awesome not gonna lie. Freebird was the last song that they did and it was badass. I always think of Forrest Gump when I hear that song cause that's the song that's playing when Jenny's about to jump off the hotel balcony. That movie's a staple of my childhood tellin you what.

The rain had stopped and pre-race ceremonies began but something was not right. The cars weren't on pit road and none of the pit crews were on pit road. The jet dryers weren't even running. They started those up after driver intros. So we waited....and waited....and waited....the track was almost dry and I was thinkin they were gonna bring out the cars on pit road so I went to go get me a turkey leg. Yes a turkey leg. They're amazing. The minute I go down there the clouds opened up and it started pouring for about ten minutes and stopped. It soaked the track. NASCAR had lost all the work they had done drying it. It would've taken them three hours to dry it again so Mike Helton and the NASCAR officials called it for Tuesday at 11 am. The couldn't run today (Monday) cause it was %100 rain, and it sure damn was today.

So tomorrow I'm getting up early and going to watch the race at 11 am. Thank you Clayton State for not having class for us students. I greatly appreciate it. Let's hope we get this race in!

RACE WEEEKKK!!!!

My favorite place to be this time of year!

So it's finally here! My FAVORITE weekend of the year!!!! Race weekend! I don't know what it is about this weekend but it's like I get a high off NASCAR. haha The tires, the grills from the campers, and the exhaust fumes just gets me excited! Several drivers are making appearances this weekend except Dale Jr. of course. I think I've just given up on the fact that I'm ever going to meet him. It's not gonna happen. He's the most exclusive driver to get an autograph from and it's just impossible to see him. He never makes autograph appearances cause the wait would be 10 hours long or longer! I've gotten several A game drivers autographs before and it's just not gonna happen with Jr. Unless I meet him somewhere random where he's around town somewhere then probably never.

Here's Brad driver of the number 2 Miller Light Dodge

It's just the beginning of the weekend (Friday) and today I'm going to meet Brad Keselowski! He is the hottest driver on the circuit right now. Brad has four top-5 finishes the past four races with two of those being wins. Brad won at Pocono after he suffered a broken-ankle during a test crash at Road Atlanta. I'm going to Discount Tire in Lovejoy today to meet him! For all I know, he could be my future husband. He's really the only one I want to go meet out of all the drivers making appearances this weekend. I've been a fan of Brad's since he started driving in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports in the 88 car for Dale Jr. He's got an awesome attitude towards racing and he's just a great racer. He also has an awesome feud with Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards so that gives him bonus points for me. :) I picked him as one of my drivers for my fantasy team this weekend so let's see if he can catch me up to my competitors.

After I go meet Brad I'm going to the ticket office to the track and get me a ticket to truck race tonight. They better not all be sold out for tonight or I'm gonna be pissed! I don't think they will be but we'll see. I don't have anyone to go with me that wants to pay $25 for a ticket so I'm just gonna go by myself and enjoy some truck racing. Tomorrow, my sister Megan is coming with me after she gets off work. It's gonna be a blast! I don't think she's been before so it should be super exciting. I know Martin Truex Jr. is making an appearance tomorrow so I might go and meet him. I met him last year and was so excited! He's been one of my favorite drivers since he raced in the Nationwide Series back for Dale Jr. and Chance 2 Motorsports. Meeting him last year was just really awesome. And yes he is as hot in person as he is on tv.

This is me meeting Martin Truex Jr. last year. I was satisfied.

Sunday, I'm taking my aunt with me to the Cup race because I won free tickets. Apparently I entered this contest online. I think the grand prize was to win a Camaro but I was runner up and got two tickets instead. I honestly don't even remember entering the contest, but hey whatever! I looked up how much the tickets were where we're sitting and they're worth $108 a piece so I won big! Our seats are on the front stretch right near the entrance of pit road at the end of turn 4 so it should be great! We can see the start finish line from our seats too. I just turned 21 this past month and just realized that I'll finally be able to go into the Crown Royal, Jack Daniel's, and Skoal tents at the track!!! They always have track displays and covered tents that they won't allow people under 21 to go in and since I'm FINALLY 21 I can go and get me some free booze and tobacco!!! I definitely wont be using the tobacco but just for the fact that I can finally get it for free, I'm going to get some.

One of my favorite things to do at the track is just walk around and get all the free stuff! I can not tell you how many vendors and sponsors have things set up at the track and just give away free crap! I've gotten free hats, koozies, t-shirts, hot sauce, whole bottles of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, lanyards, food, and anything else you could think of. Not only am I cheap, but I am a free-loader! So when they have all these free things they give away I'm all there! It's such a great part of the weekend I can't even tell you. haha If anyone wants to experience a good time and huge party/carnival/circus that comes to town once a year, go to the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I know that place like the back of my hand, so I'm up for taking anybody who wants to know what I enjoy every year. Can't wait!!!

Best Lecture EVER!

So, yesterday was a normal day of school....I thought. I had Spanish that morning, lunch in the UC with my sisters Kayla and Emily and our friend Chris, waited around in the library doing nothing for an hour, and then went to my Professional Speaking class. Our teacher had told us that one of our classmates was going to give us a presentation. She didn't specify what he was going to be giving a presentation on but apparently it was something about business. My classmate is a black male probably late 40's early 50's. He always comes to class dressed extremely nice, dress shirt, slacks, dress vest, and snazzy looking boots. He's from England so he has an accent that just tops it all off.

When we first introduced ourselves to the whole class he told us that he owned 12 Domino's pizza franchises, so I figured he had money. I just didn't know how much. So in class he had told us that he sees everyday students in the hallways walking thinking and learning from the teachers that once they get out of college they're going to be making a bunch of money with whatever degree that they get when in all actuality that's not how it is. It depends on how hard you work and how you can be a step ahead of the game.

The first thing that he showed us on his computer was his stock portfolio. It was a big list of companies that he's invested in and the numbers were constantly changing. This man had shares in Apple, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Hot Topic, and several other companies with having multiple shares in each. Once he explained what the numbers were and how much he was making a month, I was blown away! He not only had one portfolio but had two pages of several other companies he had stock in. Let's just say that he's a multi-millionaire. He sits in my class everyday and is just so nice and genuine.

He didn't show us his yearly salary and portfolios to brag about how much he makes. He explained that he wanted to show us that we can make money without working a 9-5 job. Candi, which is his name brought in his military metals that he's earned over the years. He's been in the Army, the Navy, and the Marines. He has a Purple Heart. He told us that those metals is what really meant something to him. The money is good, but that's not what he cared about. He cared about people's lives that have been lost and our freedom.

I can not translate how passionate and genuine this man is. He is no different than any of us. He believes and knows that any one in that class can reach the level of success he has created for himself through saving and investing money. It's not hard. To tell you the truth, the shares he invested in weren't expensive at all! Some of the shares he had up were maybe four dollars a share? I've been told that you have to have money to make money but you don't have to have a lot of it to make it. He said for us to start off with forty-five dollars and invest it in everyday things people use aka maybe dog food or cosmetics, something everyday people are going to buy.

I have recently made a pledge to myself that I'm not going to spend money unless I absolutely have to. I don't have any bills except my sorority dues. That's it. Before I made this pledge to myself I would end up spending money like crazy. Most of it would be on food. I admit I do love me some food but I've realized that eating out all the time is freaking expensive! I absolutely just can not do that anymore. I have been saving money and plan to invest it.

Not sure what this means now, but I will!

The minute I got out of that class yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and bought the book Investing for Dummies. I figured this book would explain a lot of things about how to do it and the terminology of it all. After that I went to Atlanta Bread Company to get some food before work and immediately started reading the book. Not long after I started reading, my classmate that just gave the presentation came in to the restaurant and was meeting some friends. He came up to me and was telling his friends that I was in the class he was just in and what had happened. I showed him the book I bought and he told me that if I start investing now that I will be making triple the amount of money that he is making today.

I was just so inspired by this man. I see everyday how hard my parents work for our family to have a comfortable living, but not live beyond our means. I want to be making money for them so that they don't have to work so hard anymore. My dad constantly tells us that if we win the lottery, we'll get you a car or we'll move but the lottery is what it is. It's the lottery. I can't tell you how much money had gone to lottery and we haven't seen a dime of it. I admit my dad has won a few times but not as much as the amount of money he's spent on it. I want to know that when I work my four, five, six hour job at Ocharley's that the money I make there is going to be making me more money. Those stocks and shares that I will be investing in is the real lottery. I am going to become a millionaire. Candi told us to not listen to the stereotypes of what the economy is doing. People are going to spend money in certain things no matter what.

I always thought that the word investing was something that business people did, not twenty-one year old college students. Investing is going to become my new hobby. Forget scrap booking. lol I love to scrapbook but spending money on that is freaking expensive. Let's be real. You have to be smart in what you invest in but it is absolutely possible to do it. What really triggered my interest and enthusiasm in this, is what had happened to me about a week ago.

Two weeks ago, I was able to get a car from a dealership thinking that my parents were going to get a loan through Toyota. They let us drive it off the lot thinking that the loan request was going to get approved. Come to find out they weren't approved of a loan and we had to take the car back. I was very upset to say the least but things happen for a reason. I'm perfectly content on driving the truck. Everyone knows I love that thing to death anyways. But that incident is really what made me want to be able to go to a dealership somewhere and give them cash for a vehicle.

I don't ever want to be in debt. My parents have taught my brother and I to save save save our money and don't ever have credit cards. That's what I plan on doing. I have to start thinking about my future and I think that investing money in stocks and shares is a pretty decent way to start.

Danica's Jump from Part-time to Full-time in NASCAR

Here's a quick introduction about myself since this is my first blogging post and then I'll jump into the good stuff. I'm Rachel Almario, I am a Junior at Clayton State University majoring in Communications and Media Studies so I can eventually work in NASCAR. That's about it. Now to the good stuff I feel I need to vent about.


Today Danica Patrick (Indy Car driver and now full-time NASCAR driver) made her announcement that she will be running full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2012 and run a handful of Sprint Cup races with Stewart-Haas Racing also in 2012. Also part of the plan is for Danica to become a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver in 2013 with Stewart-Haas Racing. For the past year, Danica has been running part-time for JR Motorsports in the number 7 Go Daddy Chevrolet owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. This was a huge announcement when it broke the news. NASCAR's most popular driver was hiring the Go Daddy media mogul who was Danica Patrick. Both marketing departments on both the drivers side had to be ecstatic about each others partnership.


The limited races that Danica ran in 2010, were not the results of what people were expecting out of her. She straight up sucked. All the hype was for nothing. She was in some of the best equipment out there and yet she didn't finish well. ESPN would always listen to her in car radio and she had no freaking clue what the hell she was doing. She would ask Tony Jr. (her crew chief) what she needed to do cause she didn't know. I understand that she's trying to learn, but you can not expect to take some pretty face, put her in a Nationwide car, and expect her to know how to drive the car. Yes she did run a couple of ARCA races but that's not enough training to put her into a Nationwide car. What she needed to do to gain experience was start off in the ARCA cars, run some truck races, go full time in the trucks, and then go to NW, and eventually cup.



The formula for the developmental drivers that the big NASCAR teams have works. Carl Edwards is a prime example. I remember when Jack Roush put him in the Camping World Truck Series and he won there, went to Nationwide and ran some cup races, and went full time in the Cup series. But because Danica is an extremely pretty woman, she's going to be able to get whatever she wants. There are other female drivers who aren't as attractive as her that have tried to make their mark on the sports but could you name one of them? I know I can't. Maybe Jennifer Jo Cobb who's still racing but she's somewhat pretty but clearly does not have the marketability that Danica has.









Ridiculous right?

You know I'm all for presenting the best possibility in how to market a driver with a brand or product. I plan to work in public relations for a NASCAR driver or a team to accomplish that kind of marketing/public relations success. I have that kind of mentality, BUT just because Danica has the opportunities to grab any kind of sponsorship/whatever she wants she NEEDS to have the results of that success translate on the track. Performance and creditability should be what is number one on the agenda. Her results should reflect first and then comes the sponsorships and marketing deals. I admit I am a Dale Jr. fan. A fan of the one driver who hasn't performed like everyone has expected him to perform the past several years. He is the most marketable driver with not the greatest results over the past years. I became a fan of his over the years where he was winning. The best season he had was in 2004 when he won 8 races and finished 3rd in points, yet he hasn't done shit since then. So Junior and Danica have a lot in common, even though Danica's just starting out we'll see if she can start performing unlike her boss.

Honestly I don't think she will. It's gonna be all hype now and she's going to be under the watchful eye of the whole world even more than she already is. When she moves to cup, she'll be in some of the best company and equipment in the business. She'll have the directional mentorship of Tony Stewart as her boss and teammate under Hendrick power equipment. If she fails in it, it could be the last hope for a female driver to do something in NASCAR for a good while. None the less, only time will tell if this "superstar" will succeed.