Sharpie 500 at Bristol, TN

WHAT A WEEKEND!!! Andy and I had an awesome experience this past weekend! We were given an opportunity to attend the Sharpie 500 in Bristol, TN!! We had such a fabulous time!! We got to go as guests of Alltel. The only thing we were responsible for was the trip out there and back home. Alltel gave us hotel accomodations, bus ride to and from the speedway, tickets for the race, track passes, and much more!! We were treated like VIPs, and loved every minute of it! I don't know that we've ever been catered to that much.

Because we were guests of Alltel we were in the Alltel suite. This is a view of turns 1 and 2 from the suite. We arrived at the speedway around 12:30pm. The suite opened at 1pm, and the race didn't start until 8pm. So this was taken when we first arrived at the suite. If you look closely you can see that they are bringing the cars out to get ready for the race. The crew spent all afternoon working on those cars to make sure they were in racing condition.

We were allowed passes to the track, so this is taken of the grandstand as we entered the track right on the start/finish line!

Here are Andy and I standing on or near Turn 1. Yes, we are actually on the track!!! The temperatures were in the mid-90's, so it was pretty hot! Believe it or not I endured all this being almost 8 month pregnant!! Thankfully there was a little bit of a wind, so it was bearable--even for me. :)

One of the drivers Andy likes to watch is Matt Kenseth, #17. This is as close as we were allowed to the cars, but it's closer than we've ever been before!