How much fun can one guy have?

I've mentioned before that this job can be fun sometimes. Make no mistake, it's also a lot like work more often than not, but it beats the heck out of most of the gigs I've had.

My first three months here, after 15 or so years of doing night work for daily newspapers, I always felt like looking over my shoulder. The shock of suddenly finding myself working days for the most part, concentrating on racing - few subjects have ever been more dear to my heart - just felt too much like stealing. Or at least it did at first, compared with night after night of politics (inside and outside the building), crime news, disaster coverage and political correctness (inside and outside the building).

On this job, I've been able to get inside the ropes, into some of the garages and top shops in the sport and meet some pretty cool people. I've talked with some of the sport's stars and wanna-be stars and I've gotten into some pretty cool cars.

I even got to do a ride-along with Kurt Busch before he'd ever won a thing at NASCAR's top level. But that one was close. The Coca-Cola people arranged the ride at Atlanta Motor Speedway on a cloudy Thursday, only days before Busch broke through to score his first Cup victory.

Among others, I've gotten to talk with Richard Petty and am here to tell you: Yes, The King can do that amazing and time-consuming freehand thing that eventually becomes his signature while fully participating in an actual  conversation with you. And he makes it looks easy, too.

That's only part of why he's The King, I suppose.

But over the past week, I might've pegged the fun meter again, at least for me, at ThatsRacin.com. I've gotten to phone the grand prize winners of our Race Date contest, tell them they've won and share a little bit in their excitement. Like I told Lee Montgomery, This must  be what Santa Claus feels like every year.

I wish we had a budget that would have allowed everyone who entered to win. That would have been a lot of calls, though, and maybe too much fun for me.

We're putting together some trips to Charlotte for the weekend of the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. There will be a couple of nights at an uptown hotel, race day dinner at the track's Speedway Club, a chance to meet NASCAR artist Sam Bass, pit tours and great seats for the race and more

I caught Ramona Thomas on her cell at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. "You entered our contest," I began. "Are you still interested in coming to the race, on us?"

She assured me that she was, but only after getting a little more comfortable with the idea that I wasn't kidding her. Thomas is an Air Force wife with young children. Same with her next-door neighbor, Crystal Brown. Both of their husbands are preparing for duty in the coming months "in the 'sandbox,' as we call it," Thomas said, which means Iraq or Afghanistan.

They'll deal with that the way American service families do, which is to say admirably. Of course, you'd imagine Thomas would be eager to share the good fortune with her military man, but you'd be wrong.

She and her neighbor will be making the race weekend trip to Charlotte.

"We're NASCAR nuts," Thomas said, running down the list of tracks they've visited and naming the ones she wants to add to it. Mark Martin is one of her favorite drivers, for a lot of reasons and not just because they both hail from Arkansas.

I wanted to try the same intro with Brooke Pinkston, our other winner, but she wasn't at home when I called. I'm afraid the message I left pretty much muted the surprise factor, which isn't to say she didn't sound excited and delighted just the same.

Pinkston is a first-year, first-grade teacher in need a break from the classroom. (But wait, isn't it only October?) And NASCAR will work just about right for her. She'll be bringing along friend Ashley Lane.

I look forward to meeting these good folks and want to say how much we appreciate everyone taking the time to enter. It's been a pleasure, too, working with the businesses that are making this thing possible for our winners.

Sam Bass and the rest of them at the Sam Bass Gallery have been great to work with. Same with those at Premiere Sports Travel who are helping get our winners to town, appropriately lodged and to the track on time.

And the people at the Speedway Club at Lowe's Motor Speedway? Nothing short of super.

I've seen the demographics and heard the TV guys comment on the allure stock racing holds for growing legions of female fans. And I never doubted it, but still found myself wondering why our winners had all turned out to be women. Then I looked back through the entries - two more times - and realized seven of every 10 of the e-mails had come from women.

So guys, if you haven't already, make a little more room in those grandstands or in front of those TVs. And you might wanna watch that language a little more, too.