Free time at the beach brings back memories

Erin Crocker is stepping up a program that she hopes will land her in a full-time Nextel Cup ride by driving in the Busch, Truck and ARCA Series for Evernham Motorsports. The youngest of five children, Crocker has been sharing weekly with NASCAR.COM readers the ups and downs of her life on and off the track through staff writer David Newton.

	Credit: Autostock
	Erin Crocker 2006 NCTS statistics Race Start Finish Daytona 24 27 California 33 27 Atlanta 30 26 Martinsville 34 25 Gateway 30 22 Charlotte 2 18 Mansfield 25 28 Dover 25 24 Texas 12 33 Michigan 11 24 Milwaukee 33 25 Average 23.5 25.3

I'm spending Tuesday and Wednesday at a big beach house that my mom rents on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for all of my siblings and their families.

I can't even tell you the last time I went to the beach just to relax.

Usually, I don't get a break from racing. I get one day a week off to kind of regroup, do laundry and get ready for the next weekend. That's my choice because I love racing and that's my career.

But this is nice. Right now we're in a stretch where I'm running a lot of double-header weekends with the ARCA, Truck and Busch Series and could use a few days off.

I really haven't taken what I consider a vacation since I was a kid. When I was growing up we used to go to Florida every year as a family deal, and it usually was around the Daytona race.

We spent a little time in the Florida Keys. My parents had a house there and we used to go there for my father's birthday before he passed away.

But my oldest sibling is 11 years older than me, so by the time she graduated high school we didn't do the typical family vacations anymore.

I really don't have a dream vacation. I love to travel. I've been in 46 of the 50 United States. I've still got to go to Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho and Iowa.

The year I traveled all over in the Sprint car series, the team went through Idaho and Iowa, but each time I had to go home. One time I flew to Darlington to meet with somebody, and another time I had to attend my grandfather's funeral.

So I can't count them.

At some point I'd like to travel Europe. I'd like to go to China and see Hong Kong. I enjoy seeing different cultures. When I'm through with my career, I'd like to travel a lot.

Right now, I'll take the beach. The family has been going for several years, but I haven't been able to join them because of my schedule. I've called them to say hello and you hear them having fun on the beach.

It makes you feel left out.

I need a break. Last weekend was pretty tough. I finished 28th in the Busch race and 25th in the Truck race in Milwaukee. Every day you had to get up early to practice, qualify and race, so there was a lot going on.

I finished the Busch race, which was kind of an accomplishment since it was only the second one I had finished in my five or six career Busch races.

When you say it that way, it makes me look like I haven't done that well in the series. Afterwards, I was on the radio saying, "This is the first time I've driven an Evernham Busch car home without needing a tow truck.''

The only other Busch race I finished was the time I drove the Fitz-Bradshaw car. Ray [Evernham] has always given me a hard time about that.

So finishing is a start. It was a good learning weekend.

And after the race a good friend, Kelley Gray, from high school called from Boston to ask me to be in her wedding. I was pretty excited about that.

I flew out to Milwaukee early to do an autograph session at a grocery store. On Sunday, I flew from Milwaukee to Minneapolis, the headquarters of my sponsor General Mills.

While we were there we went to a local short track called Shakopee [Minn.] Raceway Park, where I ran in a match race in Legends cars against Bruce Allen of General Mills.

I beat him, and we joked about that in Victory Lane. I was thinking, "Maybe I should have let the sponsor beat me.''

Before that I went to the Mall of America [once the largest mall in the United States]. I had been there before, but it was the first time I got to spend a few hours shopping.

I didn't ride the rollercoaster inside the mall. I'm a shopper. It's an amazing place. We were only there for two and a half hours, and that's really not time to cover it all.

But I did buy a few things to take to my mom at the beach.