Escaping the Madness



We managed to get all of our errands completed and headed to Charlotte Sunday for the National Motorsports Press Association awards banquet. The NMPA had activities scheduled both Saturday and Sunday, but our schedule was just so full, we missed the Hall of Fame inductions on Saturday, but at least got to be apart of the media awards Saturday night.

We had not been checked in 30 minutes when we started running into some of the other sports writers that I have met over the years covering the sport of auto racing. Several of the other journalists have past experience racing stock cars or working on race teams. So, the stories that were shared were a mix of things that happened over the last season covering the sport and stories of racing events that we had participated ins and the antics involved.



I was pleased to see Brian Vickers seated a table over from us at the banquet. Brian had set out the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season due to blood clots and medical treatment. When I saw him at Bristol last year, he reported that the doctors were going to have him off of the blood thinners that were being used as a part of his treatment in time for him to obtain medical clearance for competition in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Last week, Brian was out on the track at Daytona performing testing for the Red Bull team. He had his medical clearance and his competitor's license for the 2011 season.

At the banquet, Brian received the third quarter NMPA Speedway Motorsports Spirit Award. And being the classy guy he is, he attended the banquet to receive the award in person. He looked trim and fit and ready to race.

Dinner was a wonderfully prepared steak, twice baked potato and fresh green beans and the portions were abundant.

We were pleased to see several journalist that we know receive awards in the various television, radio, and print media categories and enjoyed all of the stories we heard both from the stage and from the others at our table.



The NASCAR Annual Media Tour in Charlotte started this morning, so a large contingency of Sunday night's crowd was hanging around to take part in the Media Tour this week. We had to return home to work this week, but it was an enjoyable time away.

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