At the time I began to fall in love with this sport, I began to fall in love with the nostalgia of the sport. I am in love with it's history and how it even became a sport. It's one of the largest viewed sports live and has still maintained it's personal relationship with it's fans. No other sports allow fans into their locker rooms on game day and no other fans tailgate for three days prior to the event.  As I learn about the history and watch old film reels of cars at Daytona literally racing off the track, I just wonder how did they do it - these men who started out just having fun on the weekends.  This wasn't their full time jobs and it didn't pay enough to be a full time job. It was born out of passion for speed and God bless the women that stuck with them.  You hear about stories of struggling young drivers and how they scraped to pay for replacement parts while trying to put food on the table and raise a family. I don't know if I could be that strong like Lynda Petty, Stevie Waltrip and even Nan Zipadelli. I love my husband enough to turn his interest into my interest, but it doesn't cost me anything. It costs me a Sunday afternoon. These women have had to compete with another passion in their men's lives that often leaves you wondering who is being put second. It's tough for a woman to compete with passion, especially when finances are so tight. I think I would absolutely be livid if my husband was spending money on new tires and we couldn't pay our heating bill. I have a whole new respect for wives and families that have made these sacrifices.

That brings me to how I became a Tony Stewart fan. It was a moment where a wife was thanked and how that changed my view for that driver - and it wasn't even the driver's wife. Tony Stewart doesn't even have a wife, but his crew chief, Greg Zipadelli does. I didn't like Tony when I started watching NASCAR. I thought he was arrogant, temperamental, rude to the media and just thought he gave the sport a bad name. He just couldn't conduct himself that I thought a NASCAR driver should conduct himself. Respectful, Passionate, but, with Intergrity. So when he won the Championship in 2002, I wasn't happy. But something happened at the Championship ceremony that began to change my point of view. At the awards ceremony, Greg Zipadelli spoke, one of the honors bestowed upon the crew chief of the championship team. It was obvious he was nervous, but he spoke with sophistication and control. He thanked his typical list; owners, sponsors, crew, driver, NASCAR and then he began to thank his wife. He went from reading a teleprompter and began talking with his heart. He was still nervous as he continued reading but he was more sincere. He thanked Nan for all the sacrifices she made for him to follow his dream, and even though his voice cracked, it wasn't because he was nervouse, but because he truly meant it and because of her sacrifices he loved he so much. He literally brought tears to my eyes. (I'm a girl - I can't help it)

Come next season, I gave Tony a break, partially in response to Zippy's speech. For someone to be so sincere to his wife in such a public display of affection and maintain a championship team - well there had to be more to it. I think Zippy had what it takes to take Tony aside and say "You're a damn good race driver but some things have got to change." Come to find out -I didn't have to be so harsh to Tony. He began to change. He went through anger management classes and began conducting himself in a way any NASCAR fan would be proud of in a driver. He still gets grief from fans but then what driver doesn't. Zippy explained it perfectly that when you're launched into a super celebrity status and you are doing what you have done every day since you were a kid, the adjustment is difficult for some until you learn how to control it. It was something Tony had to learn to adjust. He learned he would be hunted by the media and he always would be. If this is what you want to do in your life and you know you are only going to get better at it, then the demaind is only going to intensify. Either you change or it will choke you. He changed. He matured into a respectable driver that gives the media what it's due and then some. He has proven time and time again of his compassion and dedication to NASCAR, his fans, and his community. He summed it up in the year 2005, the year of his second championship. He won it for Zippy as well as his crew. He won a championship while giving the sport the respect that it was due. He made his entire crew, sponsors, owners, NASCAR and fans proud he was their champion. He grew as a person and that's why I'm a Tony Stewart fan.

Point proven this past weekend at the Subway Fresh 500. Any team would be upset if their qualifying tires were turned in accidentally and destroyed; especially after qualifying third. Then for it to be Tony Stewart's tires - oh have mercy. Can you imagine how many times they played out that conversation before they actually told Tony? What can you do? You can't do anything about it and he took the high road - all the way to first. Just makes you wonder if the incident hadn't happened if Kevin Harvick would have been able to catch him in those last laps.

Next blog - I'm just here for the Sexiest Driver

One day it struck me - it struck me while I was getting a pedicure and caught the race on a tv in the corner - I'm a NASCAR fan. Sometimes you get caught up in your own little world seeing one race to the next you don't realize how in deep you are. You get into conversations with your husband about why Jeff Gordon had to pick a fight with Matt Kenseth - the one driver that won't hit back. Then you talk about the the Power Rankings on the Internet and find out what time your brother is taking off to the Texas race while instructing him how to input the channels in his scanner. But then you go outside your comfort zone of your living room and realize you are the only girl in the nail salon who is gasping that Carl Edwards has just missed Tony Stewart and hits the wall at Texas - that's when it hits you: I'm really a NASCAR fan! Me - a girl. A college educated mother of two working woman. A Hispanic woman on top of it. There are no Hispanics in NASCAR. ( i might be corrected on that later) There are very few Hispanic athletes. Oscar De La Hoya - boxing. And he's semi-retired. How did I become a NASCAR fan? And I thought I was a Dallas Cowboys fan. I am. I love the Cowboys. All my life I wanted to go to a Cowboys game and I live in Texas. It's just a hop, skip and a jump away. Since I've become a NASCAR fan - I've been to three races and they haven't all been in Texas. Cowboys fan = 35 years = 0 games. NASCAR fan = 6 years = 3 races and planning a Daytona 500 trip in 2008. That's another thing - what kind of woman plans to go to the Daytona 500 for her 10th Wedding Anniversary!? The answer is plain and simple: A NASCAR fan.

Now I'm sure you are asking yourself "Well, if you're such a fan - why were you getting your nails done when the race was on?" The answer: I'm a girl.  It was the perfect situation. Husband happy watching tv - the race on top of it. Children peacefully napping for at least two hours. Nails in desperate need of attention. Prime situation.  Besides, I look at NASCAR.com everday, subscribe to SceneDaily, and try to catch anything on Speed Channel if I get home in time; so onto the nail salon.  Well, lo and behold the one nail salon that I happened to walk into that afternoon had flat screens of the race in every corner of the salon. How could I contain this inner glee that erupted within me. I'm a girl in a nail salon and I'm excited that every television in there was on the race! AAAGGGGGHHHH! Then the terror set in. What if one of the other girls asked to change the channel. Then I was going to have to come clean - "No -I'm watching that" I could just see all the heads turn and look at me. What then? It was both the moment of agony and of truth. I cannot kid myself any longer. I am in deep as any other NASCAR fan. All I could do was to accept the next hour of bliss. Feet dangling in warm pulsating bubbles, massage chair attentively kneeding the stress knots in my back and watching Eva and Nicole cat fight on pit road. I giggled to myself thinking that the real reason Nicole was mad was because after 6 years she still doesn't have an engagement ring and now Eva does. She put in her time Biffle - what's the holdup? Marry her already - can't you see it's all pent up inside her - she just can't take it anymore! Needless to say, I will be returning to that nail salon come Sunday.

I may not be what you are looking for but I do have a perspective that is a growing percentage of the NASCAR base - the female viewer. Good luck in your search.