Friday, February 6, 2009

UPDATE - IRWIN Industrial Tools, “Tell Us Vise-Grip Your Story”

The people at Irwin, Paul, and I are getting very excited as the planning for the IRWIN VISE-GRIP event progresses. The first bit of magnificent news came when the company announced that they could supply us with a more exciting trip by changing plans and hosting the event in Las Vegas, Nevada on the weekend of the NASCAR race. Just perfect for us!

Irwin explained that they thought they could provide a better prize package in the “Entertainment Capital of the World.” They plan to fly us into Las Vegas on February 28th, treat us to the NASCAR race on March 1st, and then fly us home on March 2nd!

Wahoo, we will be going to the Shelby 427. As you know, I love NASCAR and attend all of my son’s (Moses Smith) Camping World Series West races, including the Toyota All-Star Showdown. However, I must confess that I have never had the pleasure of attending a Cup race in person. The closest I have gotten was attending the Nationwide Series race in Phoenix last April (Thank You Mark and Gloria from Hasa Pool Products).

The trip details are still sketchy, but as we learn them, you will be kept up-to-date. The only fact I have as yet is that we will be staying at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. We have walked through the hotel during past trips to Las Vegas and were always in awe of its size and beauty. Now Paul and I will be staying there.

The Mandalay Bay Hotel boasts of 3,309 luxury rooms that are designed to show off world class elegance. Their casino is quite massive, covering 135,000 square feet of floor space and houses a wide variety of different games, from card games to slot machines. Mandalay Bay’s star attraction is the Shark Reef. This aquarium contains over one million gallons of saltwater and is an exotic scene where you can see a hundred different species of life. Included in these species are five of the twelve remaining golden saltwater crocodiles. As you can tell I am eager.

However, the Shelby 427 race (formally known as the UAW-Dodge 400) has me all keyed up. What an honor it will be to watch the Cup Series maneuver around this one and a half mile “D” shaped oval. Moses raced at LVMS during his Formula Mazda days, but we have never been there when the 142,000 seats were filled with fans. The camaraderie, bone-rattling noise and the sense of speed are going to be awe-inspiring.

Of course being guests of IRWIN Industrial Tools, we will be rooting for their car and driver, the #26 of Jamie McMurray. I did my homework via Race News Digest. Mr. McMurray has six cup starts at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway including a fourth place finish in 2004 and a tenth place finish in 2007. It will be intriguing to see how Driver McMurray and new Crew Chief Donnie Wingo mesh. Paul and I can't wait to cheer the #26 team on.

I hope that I get the chance to meet the driver. I would love to get an interview with him for this blog. If you have a question you think I should ask Mr. McMurray if I get the opportunity, please just leave it in the comment section. I am also hoping that I can get an autographed item from the driver of the #26 Irwin Industrial Tools Ford. I would then run a contest and share that item to one of my readers.

Well that is all I know for now. Again as this exciting event unfolds, I will keep you informed. We will be blogging, complete with photographs, during this fantastic NASCAR Cup Race weekend! Thank you IRWIN Industrial Tools!


4 comments:

Firecracker! said...

I am so happy and excited for you, to have this opportunity. How about that? We will both attend our 1st 'Live' Cup Race this year!! Yeah! Good times are ahead, right? We are in for a great year!!

NASCAR Race Mom said...

That is awesome to hear Firecracker - which one do you get to attend?

Thanks for your continuing support!

Firecracker! said...

We will be coming to the Infineon race in June to watch Moses on Satuday, the 20th, and staying over for the Cup race on Sunday. Already have time off okayed at work! Fun times!! ;) Will you and Paul be staying over for that one as well??

NASCAR Race Mom said...

Yes Paul & I will be at Infineon to cheer Moses on. I don't think we will be at the cup race though.

I will have to work on that.