The Daytona 500 Experience

My plan was to meet up with everybody Friday afternoon and be available and rested to make an early morning start to the NW race Saturday.

So here I am following my Google route map into Daytona Beach (I'd never ventured to this part of Florida before). I'm on SR 92 driving east and just entering Daytona when I round a right curve and WALLA! looming up on my right there's Daytona International Speedway! Now this is about noon o'clock and everybody and their dog is out walking or driving. Hot shots in their hot rods, revving engines and looking for a return roar with smiling glances. There are people on the walkways calling to each other in the bright sunshine and there’s just the hint of the ocean’s salt air on the breeze. Everything just feels right. This is going to be quite an experience. Slowly driving along as traffic allows, I'm thinking I've got to be pretty close to my destination as I run from one stop light to another looking for a right turn.

I'm surprised to be around 10 miles south of the track when I pass a sign that declares "Ponce Inlet" and I know I'm really close. There's a row of high-rise condos on my left and I'm searching for the right address number when I catch a glimpse of a brightly painted beach side restaurant with an old race car parked out front and I'm thinking this is sure a strange place for something like that among all these big condominiums, then I'm past it. Not far to the south I find my destination, get on my cell phone and call my host, Terry Cullin. Now you've got to understand, I've never met any of these people I'll be spending the next couple of days with and I'm understandably a little apprehensive but ready to follow my personal mandate to always be myself...

I'm parked out front grabbing my gear when Terry steps out of the main entrance and greets me. So the introductions began. Up on the 5th floor I meet Terry's wife (Miss) Ellie... I'm told that the three other men staying here for the weekend are all down in the hot tub while Kristen is off helping Kurt Busch's PR man do whatever a PR man does.

Terry, Ellie and I take advantage of a chance to get to know each other. Ellie’s a Registered Nurse and has started a growing business that monitors a person’s nutrition needs through blood work and then recommends dietary supplements to keep the client’s nutrition needs in balance. I totally like the idea as it addresses prevention of health problems rather than trying to cure the symptoms. This is one interesting lady! Terry is something in his own right. Right off the bat I learn that he’s a Californian (Menlo Park) so we immediately have something in common, then he tells me he’s a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (Ellie’s from Maryland and they met while Terry attended the Academy, you know… the dashing young man in uniform meets the attractive, educated woman). After serving out his obligation to the Navy, Terry made his career wearing several executive hats in corporate America. Both Terry and Ellie are sports fans who take an active role supporting Villanova and Notre Dame (their daughter and son’s alma maters), but even though they own a condo near Daytona they never really followed NASCAR. I asked why they’d decided to get involved and was surprised to find that the blog I’d posted that morning about checking off an item on my “Bucket List” was exactly what they were doing. They’d actually sat down and tried to figure out what they’d really like to see and so it was decided!

Then up from the hot tub comes Frank Murphy, Tim Muldoon and D.J. Shannahan and the
introductions continued. Frank’s a retired high school math instructor and a long-time friend of the Cullen’s. His wife has been involved in business with them. Tim’s the National Sales Manager for an electrical component manufacturing company and his significant other is a long-time friend of the Cullen family. Both of these guys hale from the Cleveland Ohio area and once again, both are sports fans (Cleveland Browns, Indians and Ohio State) but neither have really followed NASCAR, so I’m wondering who all these NASCAR novices are going to cheer for.

Tim on the left and Frank on the right...

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Terry, as I came to learn, is a very analytical person. In anticipation of the big race he actually took the time to research the drivers and according to his criteria (family man, somewhat subdued attitude and yet a successful driver) he chose (I’m grinding my teeth!) Jimmie Johnson (!) and Ellie, evidently trusting Terry’s judgment, joined in with him. They even went out and bought JJ’s gear and Terry found a 2011 Daytona 500 flag that he proudly hung on the wall of the condo. From what I gathered, Frank wasn’t too sure who he wanted to pull for. Before I could get to him he listened to everyone else’s opinions (I’m guessing Kristen’s and D.J.’s) and chose another Chevy driver, Ryan Newman…


Then I met the third member of the hot tub boys, D.J. who was being kidded because even though he's 6'3" tall he bears a striking resemblance to Dale Earnhardt Sr. He’s from Salisbury Maryland where he works as the President of a home and business water treatment company known as Sharp Water and as I understood it, he’s related to Ellie. Living about an hour from Dover’s Monster Mile, D.J.’s a long-time NASCAR fan along with pulling for the Baltimore Orioles, Ravens and Washington Redskins. His favorite driver is Jeff Gordon (more teeth grinding along with biting my tongue!) and evidently he got to Tim who decided to also pull for AARP’s newly sponsored driver… Four new fans, three pulling for Hendrick Motorsports’ drivers and one hoping Stewart-Hass driver Newman will come through!


I still haven’t actually met Kristen as we await a phone call from her. Later when she calls we learn she’s volunteered to do some shirt ironing (!) for the PR man who’s got to look his best even though she’s never done much ironing! She’ll be having dinner with him so we decide to stroll the few hundred yards to the north to have dinner at that restaurant I’d noticed earlier. I’m literally dumbfounded to learn the place is named the North Turn Beach Bar and Grill because it sits right on the north turn of the original Daytona Beach race course and that the condo where we’re staying is located about halfway down the beach where the old time races were held! I’d explained to everyone about the accident I’d had four years earlier when I’d crushed my right heel and left tibia in one swoop and there was some concern about my ability to walk down to the restaurant but I knew if I couldn’t make it that far, then the whole weekend would be for naught thinking about all the walking that was in store and I assured them I had to do it. That’s when I found that D.J. had a bad wheel too. From that point on we were bonded and pretty much stayed together for the rest of our Daytona adventure.
The North Turn Beach Bar and Grill is located today where the grandstand at the base of the picture up above is located...
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Upon approaching the restaurant we found one of Matt Kenseth’s Crown Royal Black number 17 cars parked outside along with the old race car I’d seen earlier. The old car was one of Raymond Parks’ beach racers driven by Red Byron! Entering the establishment you’re confronted with all sorts of beach racing history. We end up having a nice dinner out on the beach side deck listening to a rock n roll band and enjoying the ocean air while gazing down the historic beach.

Back at the 5th floor condo we look to the north and there’s the track all lit up in the distance. We realize it’s time for the truck race so we all park ourselves in front of the television to watch as good ole Michael Waltrip wrote yet another chapter in his life’s Daytona racing history. About the end of the race Terry’s cell phone is once again ringing. He’s got to drive into Daytona to pick up Kristen at one of the upscale beach hotels. Along with Frank, who I learn is Kristen’s uncle, I volunteer to join Terry. It was when Terry asked Frank if he'd be interested in going to the race that Frank brought up his niece's involvement in NASCAR and thought she'd be very interested in being there too!

Once sitting in the hotel’s circular drive outside the entrance Terry gets back in touch with this young woman I’d only known from our years of blogging. Next, she appears walking out of the entrance wearing a bright red number 22 shirt and a broad smile.

There’s more to come!