...drove a NASCAR.

It wasn't in a race or anything, but for fathers day one year, my wife got me a driving experience.

I grew up around dirt track racing. My dad and brother were drivers, and my step-dad was a promoter, writer, announcer, and insurance guy. My mom won the powder puff. So unlike many of my gifts, this one was perfect!

The day began with a class where they said, "If you're going out for the ride along with the professional driver before your own drive time, you'll get to see a miracle happen. He'll get the car up to 150mph by the end of the straightaway, let off the gas a bit, and turn left. Your brain will tell you there's no way in hell the car can make the turn and not stuff itself and yourself into the wall. But when he turns left, the car will go left. It will corner like its glued to the ground. It's amazing the first time you do it." I did the ride along first, and he was right: miraculous. 

Then basically he spent half an hour tell us to roll off the gas at cones they've placed going into the turns, and roll back into the gas at the cones leaving the turns. The cars they let us drive were actual NASCAR race cars retired a few seasons back, and were governed to 130mph, unlike the pro cars. I hit the governor every lap after the first.

One interesting wrinkle to this story is that a year or three earlier, my Aunt Judy had sent my son a couple of Hot Wheels as a gift, and one of them happened to be the car I was assigned. After driving it, I pulled that Hot Wheel from the play pile and put it on my sentimental garbage shelf. Ok, one of my several sentimental garbage shelves. Pepper is impressed, even if you are not. 

Nashville's "super speedway" has been out of commission for racing for a long time now, but it still gets use as a practice track and for these vanity driving experiences. It's a small track at only 1⅓ miles, and the two races I saw on it weren't very good because the fast lane was exactly one car wide. There was almost no passing. The track only operated from 2001 to 2011. It's slated to reopen in 2021.

I had such a great time driving that I went again a year later. A different company had bought the program, and they didn't use cones at the corners. They only used duct tape on the ground, which I could not see very well. I think it was a red/green colorblind thing. The spotter guy on the helmet radio yelled at me for going too fast and ignoring the lines, and threatened to black flag me. Unfortunately, they don't give you a helmet mic, so I couldn't defend myself. I could only slow down at what I felt was too soon so I could get my laps in. Once he saw that I was competent, he did encourage me to speed back up. That all made it a little less fun, but still really cool.