My Trip as a Homestead Rookie

The Flag Stand

Thursday morning, I stared out the window at the semi-dark sky, looking at the wing of the airplane, waiting for the plane to take off.  I sat back, turned on the television in the back of the seat in front of me and waited for the engines to roar to life.  Before I knew it, the plane was in the sky, above the clouds.  I plugged my iPod into my ears and slept for a portion of the flight.  Two and a half hours later, my mom and I were walking off the plane in sunny Miami; the first words I uttered were "Oh my goodness! There are palm trees!" an obvious sign I'm from the North, where we had snow on the ground two weeks prior.

Friday morning, my mom and I got up early and headed out to breakfast (where there were Cup crew members) then to the track for the Truck Series race.  What started out as a sunny, humid day, quickly turned into an overcast, humid day.  After meeting up with Dan Haim and Jason Shatzkamer from College Complete (where I'm an intern) at their RVs, my mom and I walked around the stands and fan zone for a little while.  We then headed back to the RV for lunch (a very tasty one, I might add).  That's when the weather took a turn for the worse - the rain started.  The rain would start, and then it would stop; start then stop; start then stop...all afternoon.  A great portion of the afternoon was spent in the RV playing with Dan's daughter and watching SPEED - neither of which I minded.

At six o'clock, the rest of the College Complete team and a few others came to the RV for dinner (again, very tasty).  I was fortunate enough to meet Joe Mattioli, whose family owns Pocono Raceway, one of my favorite tracks...then again, it’s my hometrack.  At seven thirty, we headed over to the track for driver introductions and the race.

With fifteen laps to go and the 2011 Camping World Truck Series Championship on the line, the rain started once again, and within ten minutes, NASCAR called the race.  Johnny Sauter was declared the race winner and Austin Dillon was crowned the champion. If you know me well enough, you know how excited I was.

After the race was called, the whole College Complete team headed back to the RV for a party to mark the end of the season.  Justin Lofton came to the party, CollPreviewege Complete is his sponsor.  He brought his father and his friend Brett Bortle, who owns Weekend Warriors TV.

Justin Lofton and Myself

It's amazing the little, random things you learn.  For example, I learned that for the last four months, Justin Lofton thought that my dad hated him.  It all started at Pocono in August over a shirt.  No, I'm serious, a shirt.  Justin wanted to sign the shirt I always have signed by drivers,  I told him no because he already signed it.  He didn't believe me when I told him that he had signed it at Dover a few months earlier (it obviously wasn't a serious fight).  I guess my dad happened to look at him in a weird way, and for four months he thought my dad hated him - totally not the case.  

This race marked the end of the awesome 2011 season for me!  I look forward to attending more races next year and writing more race trip recaps for you all to read!