I was just thinking about when we went to Kentucky Speedway and got to meet some drivers. What drivers have you met? Who's been your favorite to meet?


I've met Jay Sauter, Burney Lamar, Mark McFarland, Ashton Lewis Jr., and Regan Smith. Burney Lamar was definately my favorite to meet. Hopefully someday I'll meet Elliott Sadler, Denny Hamlin and Reed Sorenson!!

Well, my list is considerably shorter lol. The only driver I have met thus far is World of Outlaws driver Jac Haudenschild. He was at a local car dealers in Zanesville (my home town) a few years back. I had my Mom drive me to go see him and I expected a crowd of some kind - nope! Walked in and there he sat talking with the two dealers on duty - and that was it - I felt horrible for him! Nice guy, very personable - signed a postcard and a poster for me. I felt bad because I knew little about WoO, and about all I knew was what the next race was and that he was seventh in points lol. So - there is my story! - Scott

MMMM Lets see,

Mark Martin
Matt Kenseth
Ryan Newman
Kasey Khane
Kerry Earnhardt
Dale Earnhardt SR
Jimmie Johnson
Tony Stewart
Darrell Waltrip
Elliott Sadler
Kevin Harvick
Todd Kluever
Carl Edwards
Hank Parker JR
Dave Blaney
Clint Bowyer(Watched him race dirt for 4 years0
Jeff Gordon(Son was the one who met him)

I am sure there's more, just can't remember right now.

I consider "meeting" and "seeing" a bit differently. Just getting an autograph or something... that's "seeing" to me. Shaking hands, exchanging pleasantries, that's "meeting" in my view.

Drivers I've met
Richard Petty
Morgan Shepherd
Scott Wimmer
Denny Hamlin
Ricky Craven (in person and on phone)
Andy Santerre (in person and on phone)
J.J. Yeley
Randy Lajoie
Johnny Sauter
Paul Menard
Scott Riggs
Kevin Lepage
Clint Bowyer
Kelly Moore (Busch East, much more pleasant than expected)
Ryan Moore
Brian Hoar (Busch East)
Slugger Labbe (crew chief)
Cal Wells (owner)
Probably more, can't think of anyone else

Drivers I've seen in person (i.e. autographs, perhaps introduced but didn't talk)
Ward Burton
Carl Edwards
Kyle Busch
Rusty Wallace
Jeff Burton
Mike Bliss
Jeff Gordon
Jeremy Mayfield
Blake Feese
Greg Biffle
Bobby Hamilton Jr.
Jack Roush (owner)
Ray Evernham (owner)
Kevin Harvick

That's about it.

The most pleasant experience was probably with Kelly Moore. I was to interview him after the July Busch East race at Loudon. He ended up crashing and getting black-flagged or something and he was pissed off. So I was expecting it not to be a pleasant conversation. But, man, was he cool. After waiting for about 10 minutes as he cooled down, he took me into his motorcoach and we sat down and talked about the race and his son Ryan. Very nice leather seats in there lol.

Ricky Craven was cool too. I ended up writing a story about a truck team and him joining it, it was later to be untrue, but I couldn't reach him for comment at the time. Later, we talked about it and he was cool about it. I appologized many times lol.

Scott Wimmer was also very down-to-earth. Met him twice this year at Loudon. Very nice guy. I'd say the same thing about J.J. Yeley as well.

Alex

Some Nascar folks visited Ramstein Air Base Germany when I was stationed there. (been back for a year and a half now). These are some of the drivers we met and other personalities I met:

Ernie Irvan
Brendan Gaughan
Brian Vickers
Rick Crawford
Chad Little
Jeff Hammond
Larry Mcreynolds
Danny "Chocolate" Myer (Dale Sr crew man)
Mike Wallace
...and I'm sure there are a few others I can't remember right off the top of my head. A Bobby Labonte team/front toffice person even came.

Last year me and my boys went to our first Nascar Busch and Nextel race at Darlington. We didn't get there early enough to get any autos or meet people before the Busch race and me and the boys couldn't wait to get into the track to catch some qualifying action so we didn't have much luck that day. We drove up the next day and arrived 3-4 hours early. We met and got autos from the following drivers...

Denny Hamlin
JJ Yeley
Dave Blaney
Jeff Green
Casey Mears
Scott Riggs -- we just caught him as he left the back of his souvenir trailer and he was very kind and humble and took the time to talk to the boys and sign their Darlington Race tickets.

We seen a lot of other drivers at their trailers, but didn't have the required tickets to get their autographs. We'll be going much earlier this coming May and hopefully this time we'll catch Tony Stewart at the track.

I've gone to a couple of Terry Labonte personal appearances and he is AWESOME!!! He chatted with people posed for pictures & stayed past the posted appearance time to make sure everyone got an autograph.

I met Tony Stewart and a California Speedway Test Session. I had a dream day. I got snuck into the garage area! It was fairly late in the day and Tony was talking to Scott Riggs. I took a few pictures and when Tony turned to walk away I called out to him. He stopped and signed my card. I said something about fans being pests and he laughed at me.

I was on a Busch series crew (Jim Bown, Luck's #51) back in the mid-90's for a couple of seasons so that I got to know quite a few of the drivers. I am still friends with Derrike Cope and Bobby Dotter. I have had several drivers that we know give us personal tours of there shops. Greg Biffle still says high when ever I get to see him. I was the catch can man for Greg the first Busch race he ever drove for Bown racing at Rockingham.

well i have talked to these drivers
richard petty
davey allison
dale earnhardt sr
ernie irvan
alan kulwicki
ken schrader
mark martin
dale jarrett
jay sauter
brendan gaughan
casey mears
sterling marlin

and reed sorenson. i met reed here in erie at our local track during his rookie year in asa. he was such a polite young man full of talent. he was on the outside pole for the race so i got to talk to him right there at his car. he signed an auto for me and we talked for about ten minutes before the next person came for an auto. he didn't do real well in the race (blown tire) but the ten minutes i spent talking to him made me a fan forever.

dave

haven't had the chance to meet any nascar drivers, but have met a few nhra stars...

tony schumacher
hillary will
--> two of the nicer drivers in the sport
gerg anderson
rob muzzy (ryan schnitz crew chief)
karen stoffer
erica / courtney enders

i have probably got autographs from about half the other nhra drivers, but just an autograph...didn't really "meet" them