When in Memphis, visit the 'other' King's place

I spent some time at "The King's'' house this past weekend, and I'm not talking about Richard Petty.

During some free time before the Truck Series race in Memphis I played tourist and visited Elvis Presley's house at Graceland. That's the nice thing about having night races and having the garage closed until 2 p.m., you can see the area a little bit.

	Erin Crocker drives the No. 98 Dodge in the Truck Series. Credit: Autostock
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Elvis obviously was before my time, but I know who he was and I've seen movies about him.

I stopped in one time before briefly with my mom when I ran the Busch Series race there last year, but this time I got to see a lot more.

My favorite part of the house was the room with the lime green shag rug on the ceiling and the walls and everything. It was bizarre. The '70s -- before he passed away -- I guess that's the way they did things.

It was a nasty shade of green, too.

We went through the automobile museum this time. I liked the pink Cadillac, obviously. He had a Ferrari that was cool. I liked it that he had a lot of toys, a little go-kart and a bunch of golf carts.

They were showing a clip of the movie "Speedway.'' I hadn't seen it, so I picked up a copy. I never knew he'd done a stock car movie. I understand he was in a lot of movies with cars.

When I was younger my dad's best friend, who I drove a racecar for when I was little, was a huge Elvis fan. So I had heard a lot of his music.

But unless you were around when he was living you probably don't realize how much of a legend he really was until you see his trophy room. You can see how big a part of our culture he was.

I'm not much of a music person, but it's pretty amazing what that man accomplished.

Erin Crocker Year-to-date 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 Kansas 12 16 Kentucky 34 27 Memphis 34 30 Average 24.2 25.1

No, I didn't get any special treatment because I'm a driver. I don't think anybody knew who I was. We bought VIP passes because it allows you to cut in the line. If you didn't have one you had to wait two hours to see the house, and we didn't have that much time.

If we'd had more time I would have gone to one of my favorite restaurants, Texas de Brazil. It's neat. They bring you a little card and you flip it over and it's green or red. Then they come by with this cart with all different kinds of meat on skewers.

If you're green they put it on your plate and if it's red they walk by.

I don't always get out like that before a night race. Sometimes I sleep in, which I like. It's so hot these days I mainly like to stay inside.

But I like to do the tourist things when I can. When I was in Texas earlier in the year I visited the place they make paper money in Fort Worth. It's only a few miles from the track. It was neat to see all those millions of dollars.

I love to travel and see new types of things. I'm not one that likes to just sit on a couch and do nothing.

Before we left for Memphis the entire team went on a little team-building bowling trip. We really struggled at Kentucky, and we struggled again this past weekend. It's good to keep the team together and have some fun during times like these.

When we see each other at the track everybody usually is so serious. Lately, it's been hot and frustrating. It's good to have the guys bring their wives or girlfriends and just get away.

I'm super competitive, but I'm really not a very good bowler. Sometimes I'll get on a roll where I hit a bunch of strikes or spares. Then I'll hit like five gutter balls in a row.

My first game wasn't that bad. I bowled like a 112, on par with everyone else. Then the next game I bowled 65. Terrible.

The last game I stepped it up and hit triple digits again. I asked for the gutter guard but they wouldn't let me use it. My crew chief brought his daughter, Jordan, to play and she got to use it. I told them that's why they won.

But the important thing was getting everybody out to have some fun and get away from work. It's nice to get your mind off work when you have weekends like we've had lately.

Sometimes when you think about things too much it makes it worse.

Erin Crocker is stepping up a program that she hopes will land her in a fulltime 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.