Rain Delays

Rain Delays...These are 2 words a fan, a wife, or an employee of NASCAR hates to hear. These mean that our wonderful men are getting home later than anticipated. An in the case of this past weekend's race in Pocono, Pennsylvania it meant our men were coming home a whole day later (or so we hoped).

Rain delays mean that the track is too wet and will take too long for NASCAR to dry and therefore the race gets postponed. Most of the time its only for a couple hours, but in the case of this past weekend it meant it was postponed for whole day. So instead of my husband coming home Sunday night, he wasn't coming home until Monday(and that was if we were lucky and mother nature cooperated). So here rolled along Monday(which I happened to take off) and it was raining at the track. I swear mother nature doesn't like NASCAR sometimes and she makes it extremely difficult for us. It wasn't a really rain more like a mist, but it was enough that the race didn't start on time on Monday either. My fingers, toes, all body parts were crossed that we would at least get the race in or at least race to halfway(if it rained and we were past halfway NASCAR would call the race). 

Race started a little after 12:30 on Monday afternoon. There was no weather, we made it past halfway (YIPPEE) and weather stayed away so they kept racing. Did I mention that Tim's driver got involved in a wreck with Aric Almirola and they came back on the track right before the red flag was waived for the fog delay? Well that happened and they did! 

Yup thats Tim doing some repairs :)

Then this weird fog rolled in. You couldn't see Turn 1 or Turn 2 from the spotters stand so NASCAR called the cars down pit road to wait out the fog. (C'mon NASCAR just call the race and send our men home) The fog got thicker and didn't seem to want to go away. It wasn't until there was thunder and lightning in the area did NASCAR call the race official and declared their winner.

By the time they declared the winner, guys load up their hauler, get in the car, drive to the airport and get ready to leave almost a couple hours have gone by. The flight from Pennsylvania is about and hour. Low and behold my wonderful husband got home to me around 7:00pm Monday night, a whole day later than he was supposed to.

These poor crew guys sit around the the track while its raining anticipating whether or not the weather is going to end or keep going. These guys want to get home just as much as their families want them home.

The racing season is a long season. It holds 36 races over almost 40 weeks. There are only 3 off weekends throughout the season. Easter, Fathers Day, and then an off weekend in August (which we are losing next year) So more than 3/4 of the year my husband along with many other husbands and boyfriends is gone Thursday-Sunday. This isn't an easy sport to marry into, but it is truly a family. A lot of the wives and girlfriends I know were all chatting with one another on Monday laughing about how we wanted it to get to halfway so our men could come home.

I cant wait to share this world with our children in the future, as well as with our families so they can truly understand what it is we go through every weekend. Its not always this difficult but its not always a breeze. We have communication and trust as well as lots of love in order to be able to accomplish this traveling lifestyle for 36 weekends a year.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

Stay tuned as I will bring you some interviews and guest posts from other girlfriends and wives involved in the sport.

This month is full of fun exciting things so please stay tuned and keep following along.