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Winston Cup Preview
Mike Skinner ~ Mike Wallace ~ Kenny Wallace ~ Michael Waltrip ~ Steve Park ~ Jimmy Spencer
Saturday the 18th of January, my mother, my sister Kelly and I woke up early at the
Days Inn in Winston-Salem North Carolina. We drove across town to the Colusium, and
we got there at 8am. They were just starting to let people in.
We stopped at
a stand and bought a 2003 Preview book, then we went to find Mike Skinner's section.
We found Mike's section, and we sat down. We were about halfway back in the first
section.
We were disappointed to see that Greg Biffle was in the same
section.
Things got started a little late. Then they began with an engine
building competition. There was a problem with one of the teams, so they called a
time out. During the time out, they noticed that the other team was missing a part,
so they were disqualified.
Driver introductions started shortly after that.
When Mike Skinner came out I started screaming. Mike sat down at his table. I took
pictures but they came out too dark. :o(
Mike began signing soon after.
When we got up there, we let my mother go first. Kelly and I took pictures of her
while she talked to him. I got to go next. I told Mike that I really liked his
message board and website, and I wished him good luck.
I had Mike sign a
Kodak motorcoach and a looney tunes Kodak diecast.
Kelly went next, and I
continued to take pictures.
We left the signing area, and I noticed a sign
that said Mike's section was full. We went to check Caey Mears' section, and that
was full as well. So, we went back to stand in line for Mike and Kenny Wallace who
we had originally planned to see next.
We got in line for Mike and Kenny Wallace. They were going to be in the same signing
section as Mike Skinner, so they told us to wait upstairs.
We watched the signings below as we waited. They called us down, and there was only one
woman in front of us. But, when we got down there, there were already about eight
rows of people. I don't know how they got there, because they weren't waiting upstairs.
During driver introductions they announced Jimmie Johnson, and I screamed as loud as I could.
He was put in the section to the right of Mike and Kenny Wallace.
The line started moving, and we walked down the stairs. I kept leaning over the railing and
taking pictures of Jimmie.
We let Kelly go first when we finally made it to the end of the stairs. She talked to Mike
and asked for a picture. I leaned in to take the picture, and I noticed that my camera
was zoomed all the way in. I zoomed out, and by the time I had it at the correct distance,
I noticed that Kenny had leaned into the picture and was grinning!
Kelly talked to Kenny while I talked to Mike. This worked out great, because I am more of a Mike fan, and
Kelly is more of a Kenny fan.
The other people behind us were getting a little impatient, so I only managed to get
a "hi" in to Kenny. My mother was taking pictures for us the entire time.
We started to leave and Kelly was upset because she didn't think she got a picture with Kenny.
I told her, "trust me, you did!"
We went over to Michael Waltrip's section next.
Mikey's line had been building up fast when we were in line for Mike and Kenny Wallace.
So, we got in and waited.
When it was time to go, we saw that a few people were already in line for Steve Park,
(my favorite driver!) and he wasn't until the next signing. I got worried, so my mother
and I didn't go to see Mikey, and we waited in line for Steve.
When it was Kelly's turn with Mikey, I was looking down trying to get pictures.
I noticed after that she was talking to a photographer. It turned out that he was
with Winston Illustrated, and Kelly is going to be in the March or April issue!
See Steve Park's section below for more on Mikey!
It turned out that there was only one kid in front of us waiting for Steve, but he was saving five seats
for his family! They were in line to see Mikey. But, they were only meeting drivers
so they could sell the autographs. The kid was telling us thats how they made a living.
Later, when we were brought down to meet Steve, Mikey was still there. When he had finished signing, he was still there
talking. I wanted one of Mikey's hero cards, so my mother asked one of the volunteers if
he could get me one. He came back with two! One for me, and one for my mother.
But, the father of the little boy who was saving the seats took my mother's hero card
to sell. The boy who had been saving the seats wasn't there anymore. He was saving
seats for them somewhere else. The parents had two little children with them now. It
was very clear that the children were exhausted. One of them fell asleep on the shoulder
of a stranger. The mother kept waking them up and telling them not to drop the Steve Park
cars they were waiting to get signed. The the mother yelled at one of them because
he wasn't holding the car just right.
I got up to take a picture of Mikey leaving. Mikey saw me near the table and said, "hi."
He also smiled for a picture, but last monute, someone jumped in the way. :o(
After driver introductions, Steve sat down and started signing. I got to go first this
time. I went up to Steve and knelt down so I was eye level with him. I said, "hi"
and I told him that everyone at his Nascar.com board said "hello." He remembered who
I was! and he told me, "tell them I said hello, and tell them that you got to meet me!"
We talked some more, and he leaned across the table and put his hand on my hand and said,
"thank you."
My mother and sister were clicking off pictures the entire time. We were still talking, and
the guy behind us was getting impatient. He started putting his things to sign in
front of Steve, and my mother didn't have her things signed yet.
Steve quickly signed a hero card for her, but since Kelly didn't have one, my mother
gave hers to Kelly.
I said "bye" to Steve, and we left the section. I stopped by one of the tables to organized
all my things. That's when I noticed that Jimmy Spencer's section was not yet full.
So, we decided to go see him.
I didn't know much about Jimmy Spencer. I remembered that he said he never forgot.
I know of his interactions with Kurt Busch, and I remember after the accident at his
last race, he had to climb out of the car and sit by the side of the wall curled up in a ball.
Anyway, we sat down about halfway back in the second section, so we had a LONG way
to go!
The dj from a local radio station was in the section next to us asking trivia questions,
so we were kept entertained.
When we finally got up there, we got the autographs, then Kelly asked for a picture.
Jimmy told us to go behind the table. Then he asked my mother if she wanted a picture.
She wanted to take her Skinner hat off for the picture, and when she did, her Skinner
scrunchie was sent flying! I snapped a picture and then I got her scrunchie.
We left the signing area and organized all our stuff at the nearest table.
After dropping our stuff off at the car, we went to see the show cars. We got pictures with
Steve Park, Michael Waltrip, Mike Skinner and Kenny Wallace's cars. Then we saw the people who
drover Mike Skinner's trailer and showcar over by the car. We started talking to one
of them and found out his name is Charles. It turned out that my mother knew a friend of his
from Mike Skinner's message board, so we started talking.
We talked to him for a while, then we walked around the building and took pictures of Mike's
hauler.
After that we got back in the car and drove to Virginia for the night.
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