#1 Let's get this show on the road!

The day has arrived for the inaugural Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. The forecast is for sunny and light wind: perfect for racing.

My bold predictions for tonight's race:

Winner: Greg Biffle- the Biff's wife just had a baby on Wednesday and this is only a good thing for visiting victory circle.

First car out: Scott Wimmer- not enough speed for Robby Gordon's car for him to avoid parking with ignition issues.

Most laps lead: Kyle Busch- Kyle will lead early and often but will get caught up in the mess of his doing with 14 laps to go.

Heartbreak driver of the race: Ryan Newman- Newman will run in the top five but blow the engine with 3 to go.

Patience award: All the fans who want to get out in a quick fashion because its going to take a while to exit the speedway.

#2 Construction and Truck predictions

With the announcement that Sprint Cup was coming, construction almost immediately got underway. There were two 20,000 grandstands erected to push seating to 107,000 people. Pit road was moved 200 feet closer to the fans. Camping was expanded as well as parking. It should be something to see.

My truck predictions for Thursday night:
Winner: Johnny Sauter
Pole: Cole Whitt
First start and park to finish 36th: Norm Benning
Green white checkers attempts: Two
Margin of victory: .239 seconds

#3 Bruton comes through

In August 2010, the Kentucky Speedway finally joined other tracks as a host for Nascar Sprint Cup. What Jerry Carroll and his ownership team were unable to do, Bruton Smith did. Bruton bought the track from Carroll in 2008 and had been clamoring that the Cup was coming.

I watched the announcement on a online stream on nascar.com. It was a hot day in August last year and probably a sign of things to come this year.

Get your tickets! Get your programs! Get those scanner frequencies! We are going racing in Kentucky!!!

#4 The Brickens join the future Wileys

The Brickens took me up on two extra Nationwide tickets to the Kentucky race in 2009. They had not been to a race before and weren't sure what to expect. Joey Logano battled Kyle Busch for the win and pulled out the victory.

Justin Allgaier did battle the leaders early on and showed the Gibbs cars that other teams were at the track.

Logano will try to win for the fourth year in a row at Kentucky.

#5 My second time on the track

My father had talked about wanting to drive the Richard Petty Experience for years. We talked and talked and then finally decided to do it. I told dad, "We're both not getting any younger."

We made appointments in October 2008 to drive the Kentucky Speedway. The Experience allows for you to get out there behind the wheel and take eight laps behind an instructor car doing 130 to 140 MPH.

I remember strapping in the car, shifting through the gears and holding on. The speedway is 70 feet wide but out there in the racecar did not seem 70 feet wide, it was like we were in a tunnel. It was a thrill to drive the car at a decently high speed. The g-forces on my head were significant going through the corners.

I was glad to be able drive and glad we quit talking.

#6: The large group comes out

In August 2008, I was able to get $20 Indycar tickets so I convinced 13 others to come and share in the Kentucky Speedway experience with me. We put up a canopy tent and got the barbeque going. We had the potato salad, baked Cheetos and pink Lemonade for our pre-race tail-gate party.

The race itself held a fair amount of excitement with Helio Castro-dash-Neves staying out and trying to win on fuel mileage. The best car, driven by Scott Dixon, overcame a late pit stop and charged by Helio on the final straight to take the victory.

It was quite the finish! But the good time was had in the tailgate before with family and friends.

Taka sees the speedway for #7

I took Takahisa Kiyone with me on an Operation Military Kids outing in August 2008. We went to a military kids camp and helped the children assemble photo albums and hero packs.

The camp was in northern Kentucky, somewhat near to the Kentucky Speedway. On the way home, we stopped at the track and bought tickets for the upcoming Indycar race. Taka got to see the track from turn three and got his picture in front of the Darrell Waltrip monument.

Taka was all smiles from ear to ear!

8: the Joey Logano era

Joey Logano rolled into Kentucky Speedway and laid the wood to the field in June 2008. I was not excited about Joey's success because he always had a little too much attitude for my tastes. I like brashness as much as the next Nascar Billy, but when the brashness turns into unfounded arrogance, I draw the line.

Joey did beat Kyle Busch which was kind of like the lesser of two evils.

A few bright spots were that my father and I had passes to the hospitality village before the race for a pre-race meal and good seats up from pit road.