NASCAR fan friendly?? you bet!

Last Thursday on the news Jeremy Roenick of the San Jose Sharks was doing his retirement interview. He told a story of being 7 years old in Hartford, CT and going to the rink all the time, watching the big boys practice. He said one day, Gordie Howe took a stick full of ice, went over to him, and dumped it on his head, and gave him a wink and a smile. That one day changed his perspective on being a fan. Every day since that day, he made sure that he was always fan accessible… Whether it was in a restaurant, or on the street, if he was at a game, he would always put his hand thru the crack in the glass and grab a handful of some other kids popcorn, and small things like that, little things that mean nothing to him, mean so much to others.

Now why am I telling that story? Well we were camping in the infield last September at California Speedway with my 7 year old nephew. They had a special viewing of ‘Speed Racer’ on for the kids, and Michael Waltrip, NASCAR driver and Daytona 500 winner was down by the stage, to give out the prizes. We rush my nephew up to meet Michael, and Braden is so shy, he won’t even look up. Michael, having kids of his own and knowing children are part of NASCAR’s future, bent that huge frame of his down to Braden’s level.. put out his hand to shake Braden’s and with a big genuine smile, said “Hi, My name is Michael, what’s yours?” and Braden still too shy to look up, scratched the dirt with his foot and said, ‘Braden’ and Michael says ’Well Braden it certainly is nice to meet you, did you want a picture?"

Now that only took a minute out of his day, but for the rest of the weekend, the shy Braden turned into chatterbox Braden. ‘Where is my friend Michael?’ when we watched practice… ‘Where is my friend Michael, when we watched the race (oh it wasn’t a good race for the 55, so we didn’t see it long) but that one minute is one minute that 7 year old will always remember.

Braden will not grow up to be a race car driver, he would much rather be the hauler driver. And who knows.. in 20 years, he may be driving the hauler for the Napa car or the Aaron’s Dream team, telling the same story.