Over the years Lin and I had visited many of the Nascar tracks across the Country. Dover, Martinsville, Charlotte, Darlington, The Rock and most recently North Wilkesboro to name a few of the races 🏁 we had taken in.

Saturday afternoon we found our way over to a place called Franklin County Speedway in hopes of watching the #1 car that belongs to Dakota Walls. Walls is currently finishing up high school 🏫 and while we still haven’t met face to face, we are excited about trying to play a small role in this young man’s pursuit of his dream.

Ron Cochran at Omega Office Supply took on the challenge of creating a decal for the race car 🏎 and when he was done we had something that was roughly four feet wide and 18 inches tall.

Adrienne Harris came to the rescue on Good Friday, picking up the finished products and getting them over to the shop in Galax while I was up in West Virginia calling a baseball ⚾️ game.

Saturday morning 🌄 the race team loaded the car up into the hauler and headed over to the track.

When you experience something for the first time you don’t have any real expectations of what it might feel like. So we left Beckley, West Virginia and headed to a place that I only knew as somewhere outside Rocky Mount.

How uninformed were we about what we would find ? The promotional poster listed six different races 🏁 and I wasn’t sure which category Dakota’s car fell into?

Turns out the answer was Late Model and his race was set to be 56 laps around the 3/8 oval. At 5:02 the race started and then it became fun beyond expectations. The car 🚗 was in second place on Lap 7 and watching the Logo zip around the track was nothing short of stimulating for both Lin and I.

Then on Lap #7, the car in 3rd place got into “our car ” and took it out of the race. I believe it was car #54 that ended the day for the team.

Not sure how many times we will have the flexibility to make it out to the race track this year as I believe that there’s 10 races 🏁 on his schedule, but Saturday afternoon created a memory for sure.

We live our lives by the logo and tag line that our dear friend Rob Sisk created for us. 👀 it on a Late Model Race Car 🏎 🏁 that belongs to a High School 🏫 student was priceless.

Nobody knows what the future holds for young Dakota Walls. It might take him to a career in Nascar or might never reach his next level. But life should be about chasing your dreams and that’s what this story feels like!

After the crash…

Before the Crash…