Day 1,732 - Ellie and Ethan Go to the Advent Health 400

Surprises are fun. I love a good surprise. My kids, not so much. It’s not that they don’t like to be surprised; it’s more that they just like to know what’s happening at every minute of every day. They honestly get that trait from their mom. Of course, there are certain times when those surprises come up that are just too good not to share immediately.

One of those events happened on Saturday when I received a text from our pastor offering three NASCAR tickets for the Sunday Cup race at Kansas Speedway. The main reason for the tickets coming available was kind of a bummer but I still appreciated the gift all the while. Therefore, I didn’t wait too long before sharing the news with Ellie and Ethan to their upmost excitement.

Fast forward to Sunday morning after church and a quick early lunch, the kids and I were in the Traverse around 11:15 heading towards Kansas Speedway. Since I knew the race didn’t start until 2:00 pm, I knew that we’d have more than enough time to follow our traditional Sunday morning routine. However, I wanted to make certain that we left early enough to enjoy exploring the midway before the race began.

After parking our car and making the hike to the midway, Ellie and Ethan were immediately filled with the desire to check out the NASCAR Kids section at the track. Once we headed inside the area, the kids first took the opportunity to sign their names on an actual NASCAR stock car that is traveling from track to track this season. Ellie’s recently learned to write her name in cursive, so it was pretty fun to actually watch her do so. Next, we headed to a little photo area where each kid took a photo with a kid-sized version of the NASCAR Cup Championship trophy before participating in an RC car race on a replica of the Chicago Street Race course.

Once the kids got their fill of the NASCAR Kids area, we continued exploring the midway, ultimately finding our way to the Toyota exhibit where the kids were able to take a photo inside a replica of Christopher Bell’s #20 car. This was fun seeing as how the Oklahoma native is actually quite a favorite of our family. From there, we wandered to the NASCAR Stage where we watched a trivia contest take place between two individuals competing for a chance to take part in a NASCAR Driving Experience. I embraced chaos here by holding up fingers corresponding to the correct answer in the multiple-choice questions. For the record, I got every question right although one of the guys was a little too late in realizing that.

Finally, it was time to head into the actual racetrack where we took an elevator to the top of the grandstands. About this time, it began raining. If you’re a NASCAR fan, you probably shouldn’t be too surprised by that as negative weather seemingly follows the Series all around the country. While I was initially optimistic that the weather would pass, it eventually became clear that the weather was there to stay for a while. Therefore, we finally made the decision to head back to the car for a little break since I knew the track would take 60 to 90 minutes to dry once the rains stopped.

We waited in the car for about 30 minutes before I finally made the painstaking decision at 3:00 pm to head home and let the kids rest for a while. I knew that the race would either be run at night under the lights or if the rain was bad enough, it would be postponed until Monday. Either way though, it wasn’t going to be fair to the kids to wait at the track that whole time.

Once at home, we took the opportunity to rest and regroup while I continually updated NASCAR Twitter accounts (not so) patiently awaiting an update. Finally, at 4:30, my update arrived. The track was dry and the race would be held under the lights starting around 5:15 pm. So, at 4:45, with the kids awake, we loaded up and made our return to Kansas Speedway.

Once we got parked, we entered the track and headed straight to our seats to take in the race which was already in progress. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from the kids, Ellie especially, as we watched the race. However, they were absolutely engrossed. It helped that I had brought winter coats and a couple of blankets to keep them warm. My large assortment of snacks didn’t hurt either.

After Stage 1 of 3 came to a close, we made our way down to the concourse where I bought the kids a basket of chicken fingers and fries to share to make up for the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I had forgotten at home. Once they finished their meal, we headed back up to our seats for the final half of Stage 2 and all of Stage 3.

It was actually really fun to see how well Ellie and Ethan were paying attention to the action on the track. Ellie especially loved pit stops and gazing through our binoculars as she watched the tire changers quickly go through their motions. In fact, she eventually began counting the number of seconds it took the crews to finish their stops. Ethan for his part was transfixed on the results of Ross Chastain and continually searched for “The Melon Man” as he made his way around the track.

As night fell upon the Speedway and the lights turned on, the kids’ fascination increased. Ellie continually looked at me and stated just how cool the night race was. True story, as their bedtimes are around 7:15 pm, neither kid had ever seen a night race before Sunday night. Honestly, they probably didn’t even realize they existed.

The thing about night races is that the track completely changes as the temperatures cool. Drivers went from being spread out around the track during the daytime to intensely racing side-by-side. As such, the number of cautions increased dramatically during Stage 3. They became so frequent that I fretted we wouldn’t actually get to say until the end of the race. That would have been a horrible mistake though.

With around seven laps to go in the race, the caution flag waved one final time. With so little time left to run, it was a guarantee that NASCAR would be calling for a two-lap “overtime” shootout to decide the race. I took the opportunity to pack up all of our stuff and encouraged Ellie and Ethan to stand up for the end of the race. Finally, the green flag waved, and the cars headed off into turn 1. Ellie took the opportunity to provide me with a running commentary on everything happening on the track.

The cars came around the track successfully and took the white flag meaning that no matter what, we were now watching the final lap. Over the course of that final lap, two drivers, Chris Buescher and Kyle Larson, frantically battled for the lead. Finally, coming off of turn 4 for the final time, the two found them side-by-side, crossing the line in a dead heat.

At this point, the entire grandstand (as well as myself) was screaming leaving both Ellie and Ethan more than a little confused at what was going on. Finally, a hushed silence fell over the seats as it became apparent no one knew who had won. Buescher was originally named the winner but a video replay about 30 seconds later confirmed Larson had passed him at the line. By a margin of 0.0000 seconds, Kyle Larson had won the race. Not only that, but we had just witnessed the closest race in NASCAR history.

Larson is in the #5, Buescher is in the #17. FYI, I did not take this photo.

Yes, I’m serious. At their first ever race in person, Ellie and Ethan were treated to the closest finish ever in the 75 years of NASCAR. As we left and headed to the car, I strove in vain to drive home the point of exactly how big of a deal this was. While I think Ellie understood a little, Ethan instead found himself crying over the loss of Chris Buescher. Not because he’s a Buescher fan but because he’s really tired of Kyle Larson winning so much.

We finally made it back to our car and both kids passed out in their car seats, tuckered out by a huge day at the Kansas Speedway. I had honestly never intended to take them to a race yet. That being said, I’m elated that the three of us received the special opportunity to share in this together.

Just in case I needed reminded how special of an opportunity it was, Ellie drove home that point on Monday morning by asking me to email her teacher pictures of our time at Kansas Speedway so she could share them during Circle Time. Pretty cool stuff, right?

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