I considered a sort of twisted satisfaction that it rained so hard in Atlanta the race was not only rained out on its originally scheduled time Sunday night, but also could not run on Monday and they continue to wait out the rain. Then, common sense prevailed as to how that would be in very poor taste and as much I would like to have a way to punish NASCAR for the stupidity of moving the Southern 500 from Darlington and Labor Day Weekend, I couldn’t bring myself to do that. I wouldn’t mind an opportunity to stick my tongue out at Brian France and company but I don’t think that would ever happen. Besides, it may present an inaccurate impression on my true intentions here. I hope that the 500 in Atlanta will go off as scheduled tomorrow and by the time we are going through this Legendtorial we will know who won and whether or not one of the four finalist won the million dollars Sprint was attempting to give away.

I considered talking about the Camping World Truck race which was NOT won by Kyle Busch and even the Nationwide race which was NOT won by Kyle Busch, but decided against that as well. Who won those races? Look it up. Maybe not as much glitz as if Kyle Busch had won but if you go hit the NASCAR site, maybe they can pick up on the fact that Kyle Busch does NOT have to win a race to generate traffic to the NASCAR site.

I have read the references to the Richmond race coming up and have always been impressed by that facility and the events staged there, so I want to sort of use that track and the September race there as a catalyst to where I’m going with this Legendtorial. On a Saturday night, ten years ago, my son, who then worked in the Richmond area, had managed to get his hands on two tickets to the Cup race there. The tickets were top row, right on the start finish line. My son really knew how to treat his old man when taking him to a race and it was a special evening from the very beginning. We tailgated with several of his Richmond friends who were all great folk and had some really good food spread out for all to enjoy. I really enjoyed meeting all those fine folks.

We then took a tour of the souvenier vendor trailers and happened to encounter a very young Kurt Busch who was very pompousily situated in a Rousch souvernir trailer holding court. Seriously, he was signing hero cards and sort of throwing them into the crowd so folks could fight among themselves to pick one up from the ground. I wasn’t impressed and I didn’t even try to pick one up. I don’t remember how long Kurt had been driving for Rousch at the time but I’m thinking it was very early in his career. He has matured, to a degree, and I’m hoping the same fate for his younger brother.

When we got to our seats, I could not believe the view. I have been to many tracks and had some really fine seats, but these seats were primo. Every inch of the track could be seen and every bit of action in the pits happened right in from of me.

The opening ceremonies were awesome as Richmond usually does and as the National Anthem was ending, four jet fighters came in low over turn four and flew right above our heads. Watching those orange jet engines glow in the night sky was inspiring and very touching to me. It reminded me that I live in the most powerful and wonderful country the planet has ever known and those guys flying those jets helped keep it that way.

I don’t remember much about that race but I do remember Kevin Harvick bumping Ricky Rudd out of the way to take the lead. I leaned over and told my son “Kevin done messed with the wrong dude on a track like this”. My special thanks go out to Ricky Rudd for making my prediction to my son accurate and he caught Kevin Harvick and taught him the “bump and run” worked both ways. When the race ended, Kevin thought about starting something with Mr. Rudd, but the “little yap yap mouth” comment and a few good size crewmen put an end to that.

My son and I left the track that night very satisfied that we had seen a good race and I was very satisfied to have spent just a special evening with my son. The traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as we were led to believe it would be and we were actually back at his house in Midlothian by 2:00 a.m. I don’t really remember how I slept that night, but I can only imagine I was very tired and had wonderful visions of racing and time spent with my son going through my head so I’m guessing I slept well.

Sunday afternoon, Ann and I left to return to Columbia. Long drive from Richmond to Columbia, but the weather was nice and I always enjoy driving. Monday was work as usual, nothing special. So, why all the personal info here? Simple really because I’m about to get very personal to every American listening tonight.

The Richmond race was Saturday night, September 8, 2001. Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, I was talking to Ann on the phone as I always called her when I got to my office to let her know I had survived another trip down the hazard known in this area as Broad River Road. Ann was telling me that there had been an accident in New York because a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. While we were on the phone, the second tower was hit by the second plane. Suddenly it was very apparent that our country was being attacked. I immediately went to my boss to tell him about it but you would have to have known my boss to understand how he reacted to anything. He did turn on the tv in his office but he was more concerned that if we were under attack we needed to lock the doors to the office because of his perceived importance to the overall welfare of the National Football League. Long story there and I’ll tell it some day but that is the way he thought through things. When I went home for lunch and actually saw the news footage I think I was too much in shock to even take it in. Still am actually, as they have been running the footage again lately and it still stops me in my tracks.

So, what has this to do with Racing Through History? Probably directly nothing. But indirectly, the very core of what we do here and what we support here is tied to the American Fabric of Freedom and Hope. Watching those towers fall that Tuesday could have been the end of hope. Certainly these endless wars in which we find ourselves these days seem hopeless. But we are Americans. Those of us listening tonight are American Stock Car Racing Fans. In the hearts and souls of each of us the eternal flame of hope burns hot not only for our racing, but also for our Country. Just like you don’t mess with Kyle Busch on a race track, you don’t mess with America anywhere. We were knocked down at Pearl Harbor and we showed the world what Americans can do. We were brought low on September 11, 2001 but we have shown those who wish us harm that it takes more than they can muster to bring us down.

I mention all this tonight because by the next time we meet here, the 10th anniversary of what is known as 911 will have come and gone. While we are warned to be wary of potential attacks that may occur, let us inform the world from this little corner of stock car racing country that you don’t bump and run Kyle Busch, you don’t rub Carl Edwards to win a race, and you absolutely do NOT mess with the Red, White and Blue flag with the 50 stars.

God Bless America.