DUDES ARE WELCOME BUT SATURDAY NITE IS FOR DUDETTES

Saturday nite at the races isnt just a nite at the Races. It was meant to be a special day in all the guys life. Girls were included to because Sunday is Mothers Day and we all have a mother whether present or past. Either way they are cherished by young and old so as the Lady in Black entertains you Saturday nite please remember all the mothers out there,ladies all you are included whether you are a mother or not you are thought of, so without further ado this is for you ! ! !

Looks like Kurt Busch Got the dance right Fri. He out danced all 43 and did it flat footing --try that one time

And Danica gets a special trophy Fri at Darlington -- The Darlington Stripe, now she can get her backup out and go play with the boys Saturday Nite

Nice post Johnny! No day goes by that I don't think of my Mother. I have a picture of her and my Daddy on top of our motorhome at Rockingham right here beside me in the Lair. The King treated her so great she really thought he was another of her sons. She really adored that man and used to tell me all the time how glad she was that I picked Richard to be like. She was quite a woman. My Daddy was quite the man as well. Thanks, Johnny, for the post.

I cant let this weekend go by without a post of or about a Lady in Black that will be missed here. She had a way with words about Darlington. I for one will miss Pkl and her posts about that egg shaped track and her knowledge of Darlington..

That makes one of us.

My Dad and I after a number of years of pleading, finally coerced my straight laced mother into accompanying us to a Friday night race at Richmond's weekly NASCAR track - the then still pretty rough crowd and rough racing Southside Speedway one weekend in the early 70s when I was back home visiting.

My favored modifieds by then had been replaced with the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman cars, so she never got to see those fire belching, fuel injected, open wheel monsters under the dim ochre lights of Southside on a Friday night. What she did get to see, though, were Ray Hendrick, Sonny Hutchins, Tommy Ellis, Jimmy Hensley, Paul Radford, Al Grinnan, Bubba Tatum and others in the fairly new for us LMS division put on a great, if slower show than the old modifieds.

Mom had nothing to say all evening. She did manage to cast wary glances at many of the Southside characters surrounding us in my favorite turn one seating location (later condemned and torn down) as they pulled pints of whiskey from their coat pockets on the cool April evening.

On the ride back from Southside Speedway, crossing the James River from the Midlothian area to our home in Richmond's west end that Mom & Dad had bought in 1948 and moved into one month before I was born, I finally broached the question.

"So, Mom.... what did you think of racing?"

Answered Mom.... "Son, I would just as soon be in Hell with a broken back as to ever go to another car race." There was nothing subtle about Mom.

That was Mom's first, last and only race.

A decade later, when I took the helm of the Wrangler Jeans NASCAR program, she expressed her frustration that I would give up a nice job as a Division Personnel Manager to associate with "those people."

Mom never got it and sure didn't like it. But, I sure do miss her (and Dad) like all get out, especially on Mother's Day. For the past 11 years I have worn a white rose signifying my mother has passed, rather than the red one I used to wear on the special day.

Thanks for recognizing the special ladies Johnny. Most of them did pretty damned good by us.

40 years ago, on Mother's Day 1973, we were scheduled to race our Limited Sportsman car in a rare Sunday afternoon race in Wilson, NC.

HOWEVER, on that same date, my maternal grandmother was being honored at the long gone Calvary Baptist Church (it is now a restaurant) on Cary Street in Richmond, Virginia as the "Mother of the Year."

I helped work on the car on Saturday morning, then drove to Richmond and spent Saturday night with my parents. We drove separate cars to the church, behind which stood the home where my mother had been raised on Parkwood Avenue.

My grandmother was honored during the church service and just as soon as the preacher completed the benediction I headed for a side door out of the church to my car, skipping the reception for my grandmother in the church's fellowship hall and incurring the everlasting wrath of my mother.

I hustled out of Richmond to I-95 South and drove as quicky as I could the 150 miles to Wilson County Speedway. When I got to the now gone track, across U.S. 301 from the NC DOT Truck Scales, I found our car loaded on the trailer.

Seems "someone" didn't properly tighten a drain plug and during practice our new engine had seized due to a lack of oil.

40 years later I continue to have the nagging thought that a higher power had punished me for skipping out on my mother and grandmother on Mother's Day to go racing. Atlanta International Raceway got a dose of that same medicine when they agreed to run "The Winston" on Mother's Day and nobody showed up.

My advice to anyone who cares to hear from an old goat - don't ever forsake your mother and/or grandmother on Mother's Day to go racing.

Dave, my mother was most often present when we run close to home and mothers day was every weekend to her --she always wore bright colors and Hats. AS you can see in the photo below she was a pain but she was MOM. I miss her still 1914 till 2003

Really Andy ! ! !

I know most of us wouldn't trade our Mom for any other. They are special folks. My wife has been a great mom and so have my daughters. I could get just about anything in the world accomplished through my father, so long as I let Mom grease the skids first! Next week happens to be the anniversary of both of their passings. Dad 10/1/1915 - 5/14/2001; Mom 10/3/1916 - 5/16/2002. They were born a year and two days apart and died a year and two days apart - each living the exact same number of days.

Next week is also my wife's birthday, so with that, Mother's Day and the anniversary of the passing of both parents, it is a very sentimental week for me.

Feel for ya buddy--i really do