Day at the Races

We spent the day at the races!  We went to Bristol this morning, had a picnic lunch and then spent the next few hours watching the Nationwide Series race.  The kids (and we) had so much fun, we may make this an annual trip!

It was so windy, we had our picnic in the back of the van

 walking to the track

 Bristol Motor Speedway

 My sweet girl

 My handsome boys

 Cooper at the track

 Ready for the race to start

 Look at those cars!

 Even with earplugs and headphones, Reagan thought the cars were VERY loud!

 sending a text to let everyone know where we were

 the boys have a little snack

 the eventual winner

 by the end of the race, the kids had lost interest and would rather play games on the iphone!

 making silly faces

 waving the checkered flag

 the winner ~ Kyle Busch

 burnouts

 Victory Lane celebration

 time to go home!

The Race is On!

Tonight we went to the race track with some of our friends.  We had taken Reagan and Cooper to a race shop a few months ago and wanted to see how well they would do at an actual race (Greg wanted to expose them to racing at the local level before spending the money on the big ticket races!)



Hickory Motor Speedway

 the cars lined up for qualifying

 it was a little loud

 much better with ear plugs!

 Cooper waving the checkered flag

 before the races began, we were able to go down on the track and meet some of the drivers

 they were even allowed to autograph one of the cars

 Cooper signed his name too

 Coo

per!

 getting a few autographs

 Cooper loved this car!

 Let's go racing!

he waved this flag for almost 2 hours

 Reagan wanted in on the flag-waving action!

The MWR Tour

Reagan was out of school today for a teacher work day~so Greg and I took the day off from work and kept Cooper home from school so we could have a family day.  A friend from church works at Michael Waltrip Racing and invited us down for a behind-the-scenes tour of the shop.

a real race car!

 Reagan appeased me and had her picture made by the car

 the family and the phantom racer

 the haulers

 the tires used for pit crew practice

 inside the fabrication shop

Mark Martin's car for 2012

 speaking of Mark Martin!

 Martin Truex's car(s)

 having a great time!

 Michael Waltrip was in the building too!

 we got to watch a commercial shoot

 both racers waved and gave the "thumbs up" to Reagan and Cooper

 Reagan loved watching the commercial being made

 didn't realize how short Mark Martin was!

 While we waited for Lewis to take us on the rest of the tour, Reagan sat and posed

 finally, we got up close to the cars

What a fun day!  Thanks Lewis for letting us come to the shop