I had watched NASCAR most of my life. The constant turning left at a high rate of speed was thrilling at times. I wasn't one fo the fans that anyone would consider die-hard, but I knew who folks were. I always loved the realness of the old guys, the icons. They didn't give a shit. They were racers, drivers, high speed junkies! Turning wrenches to make the wheels turn faster to get across the finish line first without having to spend more money to fix anything, that was their real goal. 

Fast forward to 2015 and here I was a musician in the US Navy Band "Country Current" stationed in Washington, D.C. After becoming acquainted with some of the high ranking officers, Retired Admiral Sandy Winnefeld, then the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, invited me to dinner with him and his guest, Richard Petty. Of course, I said yes! 

It was one of those things where it was two weeks until the dinner and I just couldn't wait to get there. As I sat down to write one day, I started thinking about the dinner and started reading about Richard Petty, wondering what got him into racing. I read the story about him being a kid and racing wagons downhill with his brother and his friend. Reading on, I read about Petty crashing on turn 2 of Pocono Raceway. The story began to unfold into a song as I read on. Before I knew it, I had way too many verses. I cut it back to the ones that I thought were most important. With a week to go - it was time to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and memorize. I knew that if I got to play it for him, I would be very, very nervous.

I email the Vice Chairman about the song and sent him a rough demo to make certain it was OK to play it for Petty. Sandy wrote back with an enthusiastic,"You gotta play this for him!" I was as happy as a kid with a new bike! 

The day came for the dinner and I got dressed, framed the lyrics to give to Mr. Petty, packed my guitar and headed out. I listened to my demo, singing with it, all the way in to D.C. Now if I can only get it right just one time when I play it!