The Smoke Show - Texas Motor Speedway

In April I won a drivers spot in the Smoke Show at Fandango. I happened to be at the right place at the right time.

August 4th finally came, and it was the most intense experience of my life. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

8:00 am.
We had been signed in, I signed my life away, my rights away and we finally got to eat breakfast. We had bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy and oh my goodness was it good! There was no coke, but I was okay. There was an artist there, man I wish I remembered his name, he was painting this picture and I couldn't figure out what it was at first. All I could make out was the race car, and some lines. I looked closer at it, and realized it was the outline of Tony's face. It was like an optical illusion. It was so neat.

8:30
They called the drivers to the 'drivers meeting' and the guests stayed behind to make posters. We met Mike Starr, who owns Team Texas, and he explained the cars to us, the marks we were supposed to hit and I learned something! The lanes on the frontstretch, we weren't supposed to follow! You know how it looks on TV like they're switching a lot of lanes, well if you follow those lanes you'll hit the wall. Those lines shouldn't even be painted on the track, but they're just there for TV and the fans. It looks cool. He talked to us about a lot of neat things, and stalled because Tony was late.

Tony finally arrived, not sure at what time, but he went from Pocono to Charlotte, from Charlotte to Indiana, From Indiana to Tulsa and Tulsa to Texas and was at the Smoke Show the next morning. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is.
He gave us tips on the track, basically reitterated everything Mike Starr had said.

Around 10 we got to load up in some vans and take two laps around the track with them showing us the marks we had to hit.

At about 10:30 we got to drivers intros. I was talking to a couple of girls, and waiting to be called to walk across the stage and they started lining us up. I was called first and it interrupted our talk and I guess I had a weird look on my face because Tony was standing there and had seen it and said, "That is exactly what happens to us, too! We're all standing there talking about hunting and fishing or whatever and they call us and interrupt our conversation just to line us up!" HAHA!
I was the fastest, the Wild Woman from Winona! Haha! I really didn't know what to do, so I forgot to wave to the crowd. =]

After drivers intros we got to ride around in a truck for our parade lap. I met a very nice woman that I hope I can keep in touch with. We had a connection and there's a reason why we were in the truck together. She had lost two people very close to her and the Smoke Show helped her heal a little, and I feel that it has helped me as well.

After the parade lap they started getting us ready for our 10 lap runs. In between the groups Tony would take 4 people out on their rides. I was so nervous, I couldn't sit still.

After the first time he took people out for rides I was talking to Jessica about her career and Tony walked up and wanted to know what we were talking about, he said, "Okay, now what's going on over here?" I said, "well, you know the usual - girl talk." All he said was, "oh shit, that's not good." haha. Then he sat right beside me! I leaned behind him and looked at mom and was like WHOA! Then he started talking about how the cars are set up and why the car sounded like it was bottoming out. I can't remember what he said because I was so shocked that he sat right beside me.

My first run was a little scary at first. I couldn't see over the steering wheel that well, so I was practically looking through the hole in the steering wheel, but I hit 150 a few times because they have rev limiters on the cars. Once I hit that I had to level the car back out, but I wasn't that great at it at first. Haha.

It was time to break for lunch and we went back to Hot Rod's Cafe. It was really good. Tony, his mom, his step dad and a few others had a table sat up right in front of us. It was cool to be in the same place as Tony but we didn't bother him that much. We let him come up to us and didn't invade his space, and he did, he made his rounds, made small talk and it was just a lot of fun.

We went back and got to go for our second run. I was so excited, I couldn't wait to get back in the car. The second group had ran and I was anxiously awaiting my time in the car with Tony. I was getting into the car and he said, "it's about time!" and I said, "it's about time for what?" I could only imagine what was about to come out of this man's mouth. haha. "It's about time I get a date. I'm ready to have a good looking girl in the car with me, I'm tired of driving these big guys around." He had me laughing so hard. Then I proceeded to ask him a question which was answered quickly by the guy who was strapping me in with a "SHOOOSH." I had asked him just how close he could get me to the wall and Tony's response was, "well just how close do you want to that wall?" I said, "as close as you can get me.." and the guy strapping me in was still shooshing me. Telling me I was as close to that damn wall already without having to ask Tony to get me closer. At this point I hadn't realized that I don't have a freakin window net. I guess it's a good thing I didn't realize that until after the car was rolling. He didn't waste anytime at all! I can't wait to be able to share the video. It's awesome! The 4 laps was only 3 minutes and 9 seconds, but it was amazing. On the last lap, we were going into turn two and he got really close to the apron, and I think the left front tire hit it, all I could see was his arms going crazy, and he got ahold of the car and got me REALLLLLLYYYY close to that wall. When we hit pit road I was screaming. I was so excited, I couldn't believe it. When I had completely caught my breath and we could hear each other, he asked me how it was and I just went to yappin. Then he asked if that was close enough. HAHA. I said, "that was perfect!" I went to get unstrapped and quickly realized that I couldn't get out of the car and told the man so. He laughed and said, "well I'm here to help you out.." then he came back with, "tony do you do this to all of your girls?" HAHA. He laughed so hard. I was so lightheaded and dizzy, I couldn't breathe.. and it was so freakin hot. They had to literally pull me out of the car, then they put ice down my firesuit and got me some water. We waited a few minutes to make our next 10 lap run so I could calm down.

I was so confident in the next run I was ready to get back into the car. I had so much fun! I'm pretty sure that's when I laid down my fastest lap! Woohoo!

After our last group went out and Tony took a couple more people for their ride, after that we had our victory lane celebration. We had to wear the cowboy hat, an old spice rag and we got to stand up there with Tony and shoot the six shooters. Well no one told me just how heavy those damn things were. They had them calked and handed them to me well, they uncalked or whatever. HA. Tony stepped back and I was like, I'm not going to shoot you! HAHA. I had to ask him to help me fix it and he did and I got to shoot it. Then we had a picture and confetti went flying. It was so much fun.

We got to go to the spa in the Speedway Club and take a nice long hot shower. After we were done that had Happy Hour up in the grand ballroom. It was beautiful, the view from there was spectacular. It overlooked the whole track. It was awesome.

Our table was right next to Tony's table. We had dinner, it was so yummy. Then after dinner it was the auction. I have NEVER seen so much money be given in my life. It was absolutely crazy. $10,000 here, $30,000 there, $15,000 here.. I was in awe. It was like pennies to them, but we all knew it was for a very good cause.

After the auction they had the Q&A. There were only two questions asked, one of which was mine. Haha. I was going to ask him how often he pees in the car, but once I seen how much money was being given, I realized that probably wasn't the best place to ask.. and not in front of people with that much class.. so I asked him where his pet monkey went to. He told me that he's in a zoo in Indianapolis and that him and Krysta go visit him pretty regularly. He said that he's roughly around 35 lbs and his canine teeth are pretty big so he can't be in the cage with him, but they do go see him. The last time they went to see him together was around Easter. Krysta bought some bright pink peeps and when he got done eating them it looked like he had lipstick. Tony said of all the damn colors she had to get the brightest and pinkiest for his son. HAHA. He said that he's very proud of him, he has two girlfriends. At which time he started pumping his fist in the air. HAHA. He talked about a lot of his animals, and how his little chihuahua is pampered and how she has her own guard dog when she goes outside because he's scared one of the owls is going to get hungry and take off with her.

After the Q&A was the drivers awards. The first plaque came out and he said something like, no, what happened to these being in particular order? One of the girls said, well they are in particular order.. he said no.. they're not, we should take the two minutes it takes to put these in order, there's a certain pride that comes along with these things, but the didn't do it. So I was called up on stage. Tony had previously told the guys that if they didn't have a fast lap in the 3 digits, they'd be walking around with their pants around their waist. So after they called me up, Tony said.. "Well, it looks to me like Kandice came today with her big boy panties on." Haha. The man on stage with him said, "What I didn't hear that." Tony then told everyone that I had a fast lap of 144 mph. YAY!Go me! For my first time in car I had a fast lap! The guy behind me didn't have as fast a lap and Tony said, "after tonight no one will know that you got beat by a girl, but MAN! You got beat by a girl!" HAHA. There was only a few people that had a lap faster than me, so I'm very proud of that! =]




Tony signed a lot of things for us, and took his time with everyone. He was very personable.

I don't know if you have heard about it or not, but there was a young man that was there that had been injured in Iraq. Tony had been told about how TMS was sending staff to help build this mans house and Tony wanted to be apart of it, but he had scheduling conflicts and couldn't make it. So they called this man and his family and Tony took him for a ride. Afterwards he invited them to the banquet and then gave him a backpack full of goodies, including two tickets for him and his wife and pit passes for November. It was very nice of Tony to do that. Then during the auction, they were auctioning off a piece of sheet metal and it went for $15,000. Later it was revealed that Tony had bought that piece himself to give the young man and his wife to hang up in his new house. How sweet is that!

This was one of the best days of my life. There is nothing else like this out there. It was a full day in the life of a driver. It was so awesome. It's a lot of money, but it was well worth it and it's for a wonderful cause. The Speedway Childrens Charity helps a lot of kids with that money so it was great to see everyone out there. I don't know how, but I plan on making the trip back next year if I have to save every penny I'm going to go back. It was amazing.

Tony is such a great man with a huge heart.