November 2, 2009

Well, I’m not sure where to even begin to start to wrap up the AMP Energy 500 weekend. I guess the best word to use to describe it is WOW!

We had a little bit of everything happen this weekend, as we wrapped up our 40th anniversary season and kicked of a new tradition – HALLOW-DEGA. I guess when TSS got its new date for 2009, I’m not sure I knew what to expect or how well the fans would embrace it. Well, based on what I saw Saturday and Saturday night walking around the stadium, HALLOW-DEGA was certainly celebrated in great fashion at TSS. The parties and bands at the Corporate Display Saturday night were wonderful and it was a pleasure to meet some fans. I met one family who started coming to TSS when they were pregnant with their first child 5 years ago. With them Saturday night was their 5-year-old daughter and their 17-month-old son. They were really enjoying the festivities and told me they planned to make this a yearly event for them and their family. And the Zac Brown Band concert was phenomenal and very well attended. They put on a great show.

Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray left TSS as winners. Kyle won the Mountain Dew 250 fueled by Fred’s Saturday and Jamie ran up front all day and was able to claim his first Talladega victory. Both events were good races, I thought. Once again there were more than 50 lead changes in the Sprint Cup Series race at TSS. And when you consider we have only 188 laps or opportunities for a lead change to be scored, that’s pretty impressive.

Mother Nature threw us a curve over the weekend, and we had some rain race week that we certainly didn’t need. However, I continue to be amazed and excited about the patience and passion our fans have sometimes. With all of the weather, our parking lots and campgrounds were wet in some areas. Despite that, every fan I talked with said they were having a good time.

So with the AMP Energy 500 weekend complete, I always get the response, “well, I guess you’ll take Monday after the race off, right?” Not hardly. This morning we started demolition this morning on our lower grandstand project. I was able to get on a piece of machinery and start the demolition myself. That was enjoyable. This $13 million job will widen the seats and rows in the grandstand along the frontstretch. It’s going to be an exciting project to watch. We will do the first phase to be ready in time for the Aaron’s Dream weekend, while the remainder of the project will be ready in time for the 2010 AMP Energy 500.

Oh yeah, did I mention several Nationwide Series cars are here testing their new car?