Food City Fan Fair in Bristol, VA/TN

08/22/02 –

            It was the day of the Food City Fan Fair in Bristol, VA/TN on State Street.  I had no idea what it was going to be like.  When I got there, I was blown away by what I saw.  What I saw was a lot of show cars, racing simulators, and people.   State St. was closed to auto traffic.  The first thing I did after I got my Food City ticket was find the line to get a ticket for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s autograph.  There was only a total 500 tickets for him.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get one because of some jerks who cut in line ahead of me, and the police were not able to catch them all.  Then, after that disappointment, I went to get in line for Kevin Harvick’s autograph tickets.  This time I was lucky; I did get a ticket, which was one of 300!  Then, I took a break from the Fan Fair to go to Bristol Motor Speedway to get my ticket for Friday.  After I got it, we went back to the Fan Fair.  I then took several pictures of the show cars and myself.  I even took the track at Bristol-Night in the #5 Kellogg’s race simulator.  They were running N4 in it.  Then, after I took a lot of pictures of the show cars, I went to get in line for Ryan Newman’s autograph.  I got 2 of my artworks autographed by him.  Then, I went all around and got several other drivers autographs (Click here for list).  Then, finally, I got in line for Kevin Harvick’s autograph.  He was 2 hours late because of a bad wreck in the Busch practice.  After the line started moving, I got my 2002 #29 GM Goodwrench drawing autographed.  I also got Kenny Wallace to autograph it as well because he drove the #29 for one race because of Harvick’s early season race suspension.  After the fair closed, everyone looked for a good place to see the Cup haulers come into town.  I only saw some of them because when I got to a place where I could see them, many of them had already gone by that spot.  I know of only one hauler that wasn’t in the line, the #14 Conseco hauler.  It was stuck in traffic at the same intersection that the rest of the haulers were turning at.  I’m guessing that the #14 hauler must have gotten off at the wrong exit on I-81.  After all of the haulers went by, except the #14, we got back on the road which turned into I-181 to reach I-81 to return to our motel in Virginia so that we could get ready for Winston Cup Qualifying the next day.

            Well, that ends my report on the Food City Fan Fair in Bristol, VA/TN.  Coming out next, my report on the Winston Cup Qualifying the next day (Friday 08/23/02).