It’s hard to believe it but 2008 is almost over.  While there have been a couple of personal challenges this year, the year as a whole has been a very good one.

2008 was a year of traveling, or so it seemed at times.  (You can read all about my travels this year, if you’d like, by visiting my My Travels page.)  I added 5 new states - Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, & Georgia - to my list of states I’ve visited in my lifetime.  My mom, sisters, and I took a great unforgettable trip to North Carolina in June.  It was full of sight seeing, family history, and even a bit of NASCAR.

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My last blog entry was all about Sunday’s race.  I had to do a special blog entry for the above picture.  It was taken Sunday night after Penni & I finished eating supper in Grapevine, TX.  Your eyes are not deceiving you.  There are Red Bull Racing cars & haulers in the parking lot of the Grapevine Mills Mall.  When Penni & I got to Steak ‘N Shake there was 1 unmarked hauler and 2 83’s & 84’s sitting out and crew members moving parts around the lot.  We had a hunch of what was going on but weren’t 100% sure until we saw the 83 & 84 haulers.  The unmarked hauler brought the Phoenix (this weekend’s race) cars to meet the 83 & 84 haulers who would give the unmarked hauler the Texas cars to take back to Charlotte and take the Phoenix cars on westward.  It was neat getting to witness this.  We always hear about haulers trading cars but never have witnessed it ourselves.

One final bonus…Here is a slideshow of all of the pictures I took in Texas for the NASCAR race last weekend.  Enjoy!

Andi mentioned to me back in Michigan that she noticed a special black seat on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s pit box for car owner Rick Hendrick.  I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to see it…until Sunday.  The above picture is of the seats on the Hendrick Motorsports 88 (Junior’s) pit box.  Each of the Hendrick Motorsports pit boxes have a seat labeled for Rick to sit on when he visits during the race.

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Kyle Busch won his 10th Nationwide series race on Saturday night.  The win was Kyle 10th in the series this season, which tied a record held by Sam Ard.  Following the race, Kyle announced that he was donating $100,000 to Sam Ard.

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Friday was the longest day of my vacation.  We were at the track for 12 hours or so.  Friday included two Nationwide series practices, a Sprint Cup practice, qualifying for both the Nationwide & Sprint Cup series, and finally the Craftsman Truck series race.  Plus, SPEED TV was filming Trackside Live and we watched that for a while.

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