Texas Motor Speedway for the AAA 500 Race weekend

by | Nov 19, 2010 | Doug Turnbull, NASCAR, Texas Motor Speedway

We just recently returned back from our trip to Texas Motor Speedway for the AAA 500 Race weekend – November 5th-7th..  One thing we learned this trip is that Texans really do things “BIG”. More about that later…

Doug arrived on Thursday, November 4th and had an opportunity to participate in the Sam Hornish, Jr. Celebrity Bowling Match.  There were many celebrities there including Sam Hornish, Jr., Rutledge Wood, and Kurt Busch to name a few.  They also had a chance to catch up with some friends/customers that they had met at the Tony Stewart “Smoke Show” back in August.

After a few interviews with local television and radio stations, they met up with the rest of the crew from Turnbull Mfg. that arrived on Friday afternoon.  We all went to the track to get ready to watch qualifying.  We all had our own personal favorite drivers that we were hoping to be able to present our custom rifle to for the pole award.  And, as a matter of fact, one of us lucked out because Elliott Sadler won the pole award for the first time in three years.  Elliott is a huge fan of hunting so the pole award prize, a custom built Turnbull Manufactured Model 1886 Take Down, that was awarded to him was very fitting for Elliott and Turnbull Manufacturing.

During the Truck race that evening, we headed down for an interview with Jeff, a weatherman from KTXA 21. While we were wrapping up the interview, we learned that Guy Fieri and Mario Batali were to arrive at any moment for their interview with Jeff.  We all got to meet the both of them quickly before they were rushed off to their next appearance at the Camping World Truck Series Race.

On Saturday, we watched Carl Edwards take the checkered flag at the Nationwide Series race.  After the race, we met up with a customer of ours who has several campsites within the infield.  Adam Mize and his friends entertained us before a few of us went over to the Asphalt Chef Competition at the Lone Star Tower Clubhouse.  This competition featured Guy Fieri, Mario Batali and Tim Love cooking Texas style cuisine.

On race day, before the race, we attended the drivers meeting, watched Willie Nelson perform the pre-race show and then presented the pole award to Elliott Sadler during driver introductions.  During that presentation, Turnbull Manufacturing’s logo was on the jumbo tron for all to see.

While the race was going on, we met up again with Adam Mize at his condo, just off of turn 2 and that’s where we experienced “BIG”.  Adam invited us all up for the biggest and best tasting rib eye steaks ever.  His chef, Isaac, made the most amazing lunch for us, providing us with our fuel for the rest of the day’s activities. 

We then went back to our suite to watch some more of the race.  With 40 laps to go we decided to head down to pit row so we could be ready to get to Victory lane to present the pistols to the race winner.  The race winner was a familiar face for TMC.  Denny Hamlin won the race and another set of Turnbull Mfg pistols.  Denny, once again, fired off the pistols “Texas Style”.

Our trip this November was amazing.  We were welcomed by everyone that works at the race track, customers and friends that we have met along the way, as well as the NASCAR community. 

We look forward to next year’s races in 2011.

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