Autographs. And you are?

By Mike Harper

Thanks to a fan at MIS, my faith in autograph seekers has been restored. In this time of making money off the signatures of drivers on auction web sites, I witnessed something that I thought I’d never see again from a grown man in his desire to grab an autograph. I saw emotion.

While in the garage area at MIS last weekend, I notice a gentleman in his early twenties standing around and he must have had 15 or more autographs on the denim shirt he was wearing. As the drivers walked by, he took his turn asking for their autographs and with each one he obtained, his excitement increased.

A few minutes later as I made my way through the crowd to Jeff Gordon’s hauler for his question and answer session with the media, I saw the same gentleman standing in line to get Jeff Burton’s autograph. At the same time, Jeff Gordon had come in from the motorcoach lot and was about 100 feet from the back door of his hauler. As I’m watching this guy watch Gordon walk by, I saw pure panic hit his face.

I’m not a lip reader, but some words can easily be made out and in this case I was able to read what he said and observe his extreme desperation to get to Gordon before he was lost behind the door of his hauler. To be honest, I’ve never seen a guy run away from Jeff Burton so fast, but in the end he caught Gordon and got his autograph on his shirt and on a piece of paper.

Later that day after the ARCA RE/MAX Series race, I saw the guy outside the ARCA inspection area and I told him that I witnessed his efforts and I was happy for his success. He replied that he’d been seeking out Jeff Gordon’s autograph for years. As a kid, he went to the Daytona 500 and Gordon won the race. Actually, it was Gordon’s first Daytona 500 win. The piece of paper that I saw Gordon sign earlier in the day was this guy’s Daytona 500 ticket from that day. After years of trying, he got Gordon to sign his ticket and in telling me, his eyes filled with tears. In NASCAR, dreams do come true and in this special case, it wasn’t about the money.

Are you a people watcher? When I travel on business and I’m stuck in an airport, I’ll find myself not buried in my laptop, but watching people as they walk by. I end up doing the same thing in the garage area when I’m at the track.

After running around gathering news stories and snapping some pictures, I’ll find a nice shaded place to plant myself in the garage area and I’ll watch people’s reactions when the drivers walk through. In doing this you see people contemplate whether or not they should approach a driver for an autograph to pure screaming emotion and I’ve even seen someone almost faint at the sight of Tony Stewart.

Did you know that some drivers walk through the garage area without anyone ever knowing who they are? While Jeff Gordon attracts a huge crowd, some will walk through and not get approached once. I’ve seen it on many occasions.

And some drivers, including a few past drivers will just ignore the fans. I guess they forgot who put them there. Don’t make me name names!