Dressed for NASCAR

Who'd have ever thought that I would get dressed up to go to a NASCAR event.

But I did just that today as Governor Mike Easley, NEXTEL and Lowe's Motor Speedway brought racecars and racecar drivers to Raleigh today to get the politicians of the state to support keeping NASCAR in North Carolina.

Or better stated, to make sure it doesn't meander away from Caron the state as NASCAR continues to grow, spread and diversify.

My planning for this event started Monday afternoon when the word came to me that I needed to leave for Raleigh by 8:30 am the next morning.

"You will be going into the Legislative Joint Session", I was told by the assignment manager.

I've been lucky for years to rarely pull Legislative duty but I knew immediately that the assignment meant coat and tie.

And since I can be found dressed in a coat and tie so rarely that some would say there is a better chance of being struck by lightening than seeing me like that I had to go home and make sure my Sunday bests were still good.

I went from casual phojo on Monday, covering a high rise fire in High Point.....

..to spiffed up, spit and shine photojournalist on Tuesday.

My esteemed and equally, yet always, well dressed colleauge Eric White and I had a great time mixing it up with the Governor and all of his NASCAR Friends, a lot of whom are friends of mine too. We interviewed Governor Easley, NASCAR Team Owner Richard Childress and 'Humpy' Wheeler of Lowe's Motor Speedway, who really liked my race flag tie.

But not all of the Photogs covering the event were dressed up. Some were not to going inside the Legislative building, while other's like WRAL's Don Ingle told me he got the call too late to break out the suit and tie this morning. He was able to gracefully decline the dressy indoor duty.

The unfortunate part of this whole episode part was that we never made it into the Legislative session. They were running late getting started and we had to make the 1 and a half hour drive back to High Point to put together our story for the 6 o'clock news.

For me there's always next time. NAH!!! Back to casual phojo tommorrow. I re-vacuum sealing my suit.


Photo Credits....Photos 1, 6 Eric White----2,5,7 Caron Myers----3,4,8,9 Chris Weaver