I would like to start by saying how happy we are to be a part of the National Carriers family . We are truly blessed to work for such an outstanding company that cares about their drivers. This past weekend we were told that we had won tickets to go to TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY and attend the Firestone 600 Indy Car race, in which we were very excited. Neither one of us had ever seen an Indy Car race.
NCI shows Appreciation to Company Driver with Gift
Upon arriving at the track we were told that there was going to be a fun filled day of a lot of racing, and many other exciting activities, including the Legends races, an infield concert, and to final out our day the Indy Car race. Since neither of us had ever heard of a Legends race, we definitely wanted to check it out.
We walked over to the ” Lil Texas Motor Speedway” which was located not far from where we parked the truck. Not many people were there yet as we were early for the race, so we talked to the flagman who had greeted us as we walked in. We asked him what the Legends were. He proceeded to really get our interest when he told us about the ages of the drivers. Some of these kids were as young as 8 years old, they let the kids race and teach them all there is to know, keeping these youngsters from finding trouble out on the streets. I found that very interesting. These kids start at a smaller car and go up the ladder with ages.
Once people started arriving, two young ladies sat next to us. One was a mother of a driver, the other the grandmother who came out to watch their driver attempt to take home a win. Their names were Cheryl and Joyce.
Their son/ grandson was Matthew Barnard, car #357..needless to say we had a driver to cheer for now. After the Legends race, we were invited to go into the pits of the Legends cars , we met some truly outstanding young folks. We even got to ask many questions about their sport, as well as getting some photos taken with our new favorite Legends driver, Matthew Barnard. What a start to a great day with such outstanding company.
We made our way over to the main event in time to watch them setting up the stage for the awesome pre-race country music concert of Reckless Kelly. It would be our first time hearing him sing. We walked through the tunnel to the pit area to watch the mayhem of all the mechanics getting these multi-million dollar machines ready to battle it out on the track…taking pictures along the way.
Making our way back to our seats for the start of the Firestone 600, was a great walk , well worth it. Once back at our seats , we got to watch the Reckless Kelly concert. Wow, he was a very talented singer. We looked up because everyone was pointing to the beautiful Texas blue sky, where we saw three guys parachuting. One diver was pulling streamers while another was displaying a Texas flag. Finally, the last skydiver was displaying our great countries American flag. As we all know, when the American Flag arrives, it’s time for our National Anthem. Above the track was a B52 bomber followed in formation by three smaller aircraft, what a beautiful sight.
We watched the driver introductions, seen some pretty well known people , Mario Andretti being one of them. START YOUR ENGINES!! Its time to race. The Indy Cars came out on the track and all I could say was “Wow”. These cars would go speeds of up to 225 MPH. This was truly an amazing experience. We met some wonderful people, some race car drivers and even family of the drivers. What more could a person ask for ?
Thank you National Carriers for making this possible, it was one of our best days ever !!
Dawn Petty – Wife of Craig Petty
NCI Company Driver Truck # 4561
