October 12, 2005

By Colby Einarsson

Colby Einarsson

I always look forward to the October race in Kansas. I like to go to the race, but even when we don’t have tickets, I like to go for the shopping. This year we went for the shopping.

I started my shopping trip on Friday at the Nextel trailer where I didn’t buy anything else but a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. car. I was looking for a hat, but they were way too much money to spend right away, and besides, I was hoping to convince my mom (aka “the bank”) to buy all my hats and shirts. My mission was diecast.

The next couple of hours found me bouncing between all the other trailers seeking hard-to-find diecasts of those I call “little guys”. They’re the ones that aren’t necessarily in the top ten (or twenty…or thirty...) each week, but that I like to have to complete my collection.

We got to go backstage at Trackside Friday night, and since Junior was going to be a guest, it was really different. You could feel the tension. I just can’t describe it, but it was weird. I had wanted to talk to Rusty Wallace, but I didn’t get the chance last year. I had a picture with me of when I first met him in 2001, so this time I really wanted to talk to him. When he was leaving the stage I tried to get his attention. I was persistent and kept saying, “Rusty… Rusty…. Rusty…” Finally I got his attention and showed him the picture. He looked at it and said, “Well I’ll be damned… Good for you!!” He said it like he was happy for me that I got to meet Rusty Wallace. But he IS Rusty Wallace, so I thought that was kinda weird.

I got to see Jeff Burton, too, and he’s a lot taller than I thought he was. At one point Friday night when I was waiting for Junior to come off the stage, I was so focused on getting a picture of him that I didn’t even notice Jack Roush having to walk around me because I was in his path.

Friday night after we watched Trackside, as we were leaving, I saw a Ford Fusion over by a trailer and a whole bunch of people standing there. I thought maybe the Ford CEO or someone was telling us about it. I walked over and realized it was Carl Edwards. Cool! I was wondering why everyone was so quiet, but then I realized my mom had kept walking. I had to get her attention somehow, so I called her and when she looked, I yelled, “It’s Carl!” She didn’t hear me, so again, and louder this time, I yelled, “It’s CARL!!” She started walking back, and only then did we realize all the people were so quiet because Carl was making a commercial and they’d been warned to be quiet.        Oops.

Saturday we went back to the track, and while I was out shopping, someone at the Ford trailer told me Scott Riggs was over at his trailer, but only for a couple more minutes. I rushed over and got to see him. I asked him if it was fun to flip and asked him if it was like a rollercoaster. He said it’s not like a rollercoaster because all the blood rushes to your head and you have to close your eyes or it’s worse. He signed a hat for me and also my Game Boy. My friend Josh and I have always wanted someone to sign our Game Boys, and now it finally happened! I asked Scott if he’d ever been asked to sign a Game Boy before, and he said he had, but only once. He had a funny story to tell about that, too. He said that someone wanted his Game Boy signed, but didn’t want to wait, so the guy asked someone else near the front of the line if she would have it signed for him. He handed it to her opened, and gave her only the request to have it signed, so she handed it to Scott the same way, and asked him to sign it. He asked her, “On the SCREEN?” And she said, “Yes.” And he told her, “But you won’t be able to use it.” She said, “That’s okay.” So he went ahead and signed it. He didn’t know it was someone else’s, and thought it was hers. After he signed it, though, he said he saw her hand it to someone else, the owner, and he was a little freaked out. It was cool to stand there and talk to Scott for long time because it wasn’t like a regular autograph session where you have just a couple of seconds. I got to talk with him for about three or four minutes. And I can’t wait to show Josh my Game Boy!

After I left Scott Riggs’ trailer, I went to Ryan Newman’s trailer, but they required you to have a ticket for an autograph and I didn’t have one. It’s probably good that I didn’t, though, because I was planning on having him sign my phone. Later I realized that he probably wouldn’t have signed it anyway, because my phone is a Sprint phone, and I hadn’t even thought about that. I’m glad I didn’t have the chance to be embarrassed that way.

Next I saw Greg Biffle at his trailer, so I got in line. I had a Biffle Busch car with me that I wanted to have him sign. So I went over there and saw the assistant handing him things to autograph. Usually those kinds of assistants put the items on the table and slide them over to the driver, but this one was handing things to him. When she handed him my car (still in the package), he went to take it from her without looking, and completely bent the cardboard packaging. It didn’t bother me so much because I don’t have cars signed to sell them, but just to keep them. It was funny, though, because he fumbled with it for awhile to try and get it to not be all bent up. Finally he just signed it on the crease, maybe to try and make it look not so obvious. The funniest part was that when he first bent it, he looked at his assistant, and she looked at him, and they both had the same look on their face but neither one knew exactly what to do about it.

The whole weekend was a blast. And I left with a few funny stories to tell.

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