Today while I was driving to work I notice one of Spotsylvania’s Finest pulled over another resident in my neighborhood. The Sheriff’s Department randomly patrols the main road through the neighborhood from time to time which is good because it’s not hard to speed on that road. In high school I never drove the speed limit through the neighborhood. I had the need to speed. Part of me always wanted to race cars. Sometimes I did with friends back home on local roads. Yes I realize this wasn’t safe but the thrill was incomparable to anything else I did at the time. During my junior year of high school I received two speeding tickets. One while passing a cop in Stafford County after dropping my homecoming date off. Yeah I’m the guy who didn’t notice he was speeding up to go around a police car. The second I was flying down the road with a couple of other classmates when we got caught by a Spotsylvania Deputy parked on the side of the road. There is nothing more embarrassing then the entire school passing you while you are getting a summons. Thankfully I had friends to share the humiliation with. Either way my parents grounded me from the car both times until I paid the ticket off, which meant waiting for court because I was under the age of 18 and had to go before the judge both times. Thankfully this was before Virginia passed laws taking drivers license away from under 18 drivers.
The reason I filled you in on those two tickets and the car this morning is it reminded me of when my brother was pulled over in my truck in front of the neighborhood. I don’t remember the exact time but it was in 2000 around graduation, that summer, or right after I left for college. Somehow I was blamed for his speeding ticket. My mom stated, “The only reason your brother was pulled over is because he was driving your truck.” My first remark was to ask her if she thought all squad cars had a picture of my truck inside of them with the direction to pull this vehicle over whenever you see it because the driver is more than likely speeding. My brother didn’t even get grounded, to be honest I think he was offered the chance to take a driver safety course and have the ticket removed from his record. I still can’t believe that my mom thought I was the reason he got the ticket. I joking asked if she thought it was impossible my brother was speeding. Was I the only one with the speeding gene in the family? That answer was no because from my senior year on my parents tried hiding their tickets from me. Maybe I should get a pass and say that I only speed because the people who taught me to drive speed?
Still I didn’t learn my lesson. In college I ended up getting two more tickets. The last one was in New Kent County and if you went to Christopher Newport University and were caught speeding on 64 that was where it happened. When I went to court the entire courtroom were people I know from CNU. After college I got caught once in Maryland and that was the last actual speeding ticket I received. A couple of years ago in Fairfax I was driving on the parkway and not paying attention and was pulled over. I finally was stopped by an officer who cut me a break and it was probably the only time I was not intentionally speeding. I was written a summons for “failure to obey a traffic sign.” The lesson was finally learned when I realized I was not going to become a police officer because my driving record was so jacked up and my insurance for my truck was outrageous. I’m not going to lie to you and say I don’t speed. I’m just going to say I stay within a reasonable miles per hour from the posted limit.
No I’m sure you are asking how this has anything to do with NASCAR. Other than the driving fast aspect it doesn’t. But on Sunday Jeff Gordon won his first race in 66 attempts. (Over two years.) My father is big Jeff Gordon fan. We were listening to the race in the car on our way to meet my mother for dinner. All we knew when we went inside was Gordon was battling Kyle Busch for the lead. At dinner my father asked me what was going on in the race so I looked it up on my phone and found out Gordon won. When I told him his face lit up like I haven’t seen it before. My father who has watched NASCAR for longer than I’ve been alive is a fan of the sport. Sure Gordon is his favorite driver right now but my dad still will watch even when he is not winning. Much like Junior Nation is doing right now. But I have not seen my dad as excited about NASCAR in 10 years. This season is only two races old but it has been much more exciting than in previous years. I think NASCAR has finally figured out the new car, the point system, and the chase to a point where the drivers can just race and have at it. All I know is two weeks ago my dad was about to give up on NASCAR and now he appears to be back.
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