Bristol After Party

Wow, just wow.  I can’t remember when the racing at Bristol has been this good.  It’s been years since I’ve seen the track this racy.  Of course all that bumping, grinding and rubbing comes at a price.  There was a lot of torn up race cars loaded up at the end of the xfinity race and somebody has to fix them. Quick. Before Richmond. Friday night.

I’ve seen the hubs less than four hours since he got back to the shop at midnight Saturday.  That is indeed the woes and misery of short track racing.  He got home about 1:30 am Sunday morning.  He spent a few hours with the family (and the dogs) then headed back to the shop in Buford.

From Buford, he went to the paint shop in Tucker aka the original race shop.  Most folks might not know, but Scott paints cars, chassis, tool boxes and other stuff in the off season.  Back in south GA, he even painted an airplane.  No lie.

He’s painted four cars in 3 weeks.  His assistant, helping him tear down, tape up and prep?  Well none other than the driver himself.  So yesterday evening, while other xfinity drivers were hanging with their families, Ryan met Scott in Tucker to help him get a car out of the booth and transported up to Buford.

With so many torn up cars, he needed to head out to Charlotte first thing Monday morning. We live about an hour from the shop. But you know ATL traffic, so Scott slept in his big truck Sunday night.  He then went to Charlotte Monday morning, dropped off a wrecked car, picked up parts and headed back to the shop where at 10 pm at night, the entire crew was still working.

It’s a tight turn around between Bristol and Richmond.  The haulers need to leave Thursday morning to park that afternoon.  With three cars to get ready, and two of your short track cars out of commission, it will take everything this small team has to be ready to load by Thursday morning.

And week after next is Talladega.  So Scott left this morning to go back to Charlotte to get the speedway car and pick up more parts.  At some point, he’s got to do some laundry, unpack and repack.  And the grass needs mowing.  At this point, I’m considering borrowing the neighbor’s goats.  They got out last week and seemed to really like our grass.

Most of the bigger teams (cup affiliated) probably have their Richmond, Dega and Dover cars sitting on jack stands and ready to load.  Or at the least waiting on an engineer to pull down and set up.  But the small teams, after a race like Bristol, are all scrambling trying to get cars, motors and haulers turned around for the next race.



Lil Dawg fans: Carlee and Boo in the back; cousins CJ and Sadie in front at Sanford Stadium, home of UGA Bulldogs.

Back to back short track races will be awesome for Rebecca the race fan.  I’m even hyped up that they race on Friday night so I can go to GDay on Saturday. Go Dawgs!! But note, that the hubs and all of RSS are really busting it to get ready for Richmond.  I’m pretty sure that the majority of the smaller Xfinity series teams are too.

Update: Scott's Departure has been pushed up a day.  He will be rolling out today sometime after lunch.  Eeek! He and driver partner Tony will stop in Charlotte to pick up a car and some more racing stuff then its on to VA.  Its about an 8 hour ride from the shop so hopefully they will make the trip without any issues. 

Trucks park at noon.  Due to the construction at Richmond, teams will drive haulers in, unload and drive out.  Repeat the process to go home.  Old timey ARCA style right there.  Makes you have flash backs to Toledo.  Just don't lose that pit box going down the hill.