Dale, Jr. and the National Guard

I just arrived at my hotel in San Francisco… more on why I’m staying here tonight before heading to Sonoma for raceprep tomorrow in a minute, but first, I have to tell you about my day with the National Guard.  It was awesome.  We went to Camp Butner, where the Guard trains outside of Raleigh. We got there at about 9:30am and all of the guardsmen were so kind. So, I met Pam, our producer, and Dave and Frank, our shooter and audiotech on the training ground and at 10:00, the blackhawks arrived. It was so cool – I have lots of pictures but don’t have my camera chord right now so I’ll hopefully add them tomorrow or Friday morning. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tony Eury Jr. (Dale’s crew chief) and their pit crew arrived in a pack of 4 choppers. There were about 60 Nat’l Guardsmen there to watch as they got off the blackhawks. When they got there, right away, they unveiled Jr’s car with a new paint scheme that he will run in Daytona. It is really cool looking – pixelated camouflage.

Jr’s Hendrick crew is made up of a really great group of guys and the first thing we did before our interview with Dale was get separated into two platoons. I was part of it and my group headed up a small hill where we were taught how to shoot weapons. The first piece of machinery that we had the opportunity to learn about was the M107, long range sniper rifle.  it required the shooter to lay flat on their stomach and shoot at a target about 300 yards away.  Junior was talking to the soldiers, we were all listening to the presentation and Tony Eury, Jr says “I think Lindsay should go first”.   There was no way I was getting out of it.  So, I got down there and did my best but it was a little nerve racking. Everytime someone shot the rifle, I jumped out of my skin.

Before lunch, I had a chance to do an interview with Dale (thanks to everyone, by the way, for question suggestions – I’ll go more into his responses in upcoming blogs). The highlights were as follows. About his win this past Sunday, Dale said the celebration was unbelievable – I know the gang partied a bit on Jr’s property at his western town. He said his family was so excited, that his mother and sister kept repeating themselves over and over. He also joked that it could have been because they had been out on a boat earlier that day:)  He also talked about how he feels he only has about 4 weeks now before critics/fans start saying it again .. “was it a flash in the pan”. He definitely thinks a championship is attainable. 

After the interview, we had lunch. We ate MRE’s just like the troops. Mine was “BBQ veggie burger”. pretty tasty, i might add. But after lunch, they bussed us down the road and we took part in a lifesize simulation .. there was a huge screen with about 6 guns (Dale’s line of the day was..”how much does a thing like this cost?”)   it was like a bowling setup but sniper shooting where we were all in lanes firing at the changing screens as enemies came over the simulated scenery..it was very cool.  Dale, Jr. was loving it and the whole crew had a blast. I will write more but am about to fall asleep on my computer after the flight out west.

Back to this evening. I’m staying in San Francisco tonight because first thing in the morning, I’m doing a shoot with a crew member of Kurt Busch’s team. his name is Daren Russell and his great grandfather was a guard on Alcatraz and was actually involved in the riots of 1946. We are going to meet him on the pier and go over to the island so that Daren can tell us the story for our prerace show. Am hitting the hay and will write more tomorrow.

cheers!

Lindsay