Caution flag
I know one thing for certain. If Gov. Mike Easley ever asks to borrow my car, he's getting a big fat "NO!" Every time the man gets behind the wheel something bad happens.
Memo to NASCAR...when you see him coming, hide the keys.
From our friends at the Associated Press:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Two years after crashing a stock car at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Gov. Mike Easley nearly brought out the caution flag again Tuesday when he veered a NASCAR racer out of control on a drive through downtown.Easley, participating in a celebration of the state's motorsports, fishtailed and ran up on a curb - narrowly avoiding a parked car and a utility pole — as he drove Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet from the executive mansion to the Legislative Building.
"If you got any blue paint on your car, you know who did it," said Rep. Karen Ray, R-Iredell. "Put this fellow on a race track, and when he's supposed to turn left, he turns right."Like all stock cars, the racecar had no reverse gear, so helpers pushed it back toward the street and a slower, but unruffled Easley continued on his way.
After finally covering the few blocks to his destination, Easley squeezed from behind the wheel to stand on the door frame, triumphantly pumping his arms skyward as a crowd of racing fans cheered.
"I was supposed to do a burnout back there, but I didn't have room," Easley said of his near miss.
A spokeswoman said Easley planned all along to do the "burnouts" - a showy, controlled fishtail often performed by drivers after a win - at each corner on the route, which was closed to traffic and cleared of parked vehicles. But someone left a car near the entrance to the mansion, and he struggled to avoid it.
Asked if it was a good idea for Easley to burnout, considering his troubled history with racing, spokeswoman Cari Boyce said burnouts are "just what you do when you are in a race car . . . True NASCAR fans understand."
In 2003, Easley demolished a Johnson Chevrolet during practice laps for a charity event at the speedway in Concord. Wearing mandatory protective gear, Easley was going an estimated 120 mph when the car spun out as he entered a turn and hit a retaining wall.
He was uninjured and even autographed the car before it was towed away. Later that day, he got into another car and drove several uneventful laps.
Tuesday's event, part of the annual Tourism Day, kicked off a celebration of stock car racing at the Legislature, where House and Senate members in joint session honored NASCAR legends and a motorsports industry worth $5.1 billion a year to the state.
The session was ostensibly called to pass a resolution honoring North Carolina native William "Big Bill" France, a driver and promoter who founded the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1947.
But with a host of racing stars from Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett to Richard Childress and Ernie Irvan, it was clear the day's purpose was to shower affection on NASCAR as it considers whether to keep events in North Carolina and where to locate its hall of fame.
NASCAR is fielding bids from sites including Charlotte, Atlanta, Daytona Beach, Fla., and Richmond, Va., for the hall of fame. A decision was expected by the end of the year.
Honorees insisted the museum should be located in or near Charlotte,
where scores of racing teams are based in shops that are already tourist destinations."It would give fans other things to do than just go to the hall of fame," said Jarrett, who earned 50 wins and two championships before he retired at 34 in the mid-1960s. "The first sanctioned race of what is now the Nextel Cup was run in Charlotte, so I think it's very important that it be here to preserve that history but more for the convenience of the fans."