Soldier ready to return to family, fill NASCAR void (cont'd)

In the banquet hall, there was no Budweiser chilling on ice or tailgate type foods. But for Young and his team, it was a piece of home.

"It was like touching home with about 400 or 500 of your closest friends in there," he recalled. "We look for anything around that reminds us of home, something to get us home."

Before I had the opportunity to actually talk to Young via cell phone from his current mission in Afghanistan, he and I corresponded back and forth via e-mail last season. He is a team chief for a 16-person embedded training team working with an Afghan National Army Combat Service Support Kandak.

I would try to send him tidbits of news from the track because I knew he wasn't getting a whole lot in Afghanistan and he could never stay up late enough to accommodate the time difference. He spends most of his time coaching, mentoring and teaching the ANA to strengthen its army.

In a correspondence after the September race at Dover International Speedway he wrote: "It's 9:45 p.m. here and I am too old to stay up that late any more!!! That's the bad thing about it here. When I was in Baghdad, one of the AFN (Armed Forces Network) channels replayed the race at least once later in the week. We don't get that channel here, so most of the races are late at night. They will replay a couple of the football games ad nausea all week but not the NASCAR race or the NHRA races."

It was a much-needed reminder that watching even a NASCAR race, something I clearly take for granted, can appear to be a luxury for some soldiers.

Nevertheless, the NASCAR fan base is apparent overseas, Young said.

"I'll see someone that will have a sticker in the window, depending on what car number," he said. "You just have to be discrete about that stuff. I have seen people take a piece of chalk and written a number on something, and it's nice because you know they're a fan, too."

Young hadn't picked a new driver since Dale Jarrett retired last year. When returns to his wife and family back in Missouri, however, he has vowed to be a Ryan Newman fan.

"I finally gave up and crossed over. I have decided to be a Ryan Newman fan," he said. "He has done some things that have really irked me over the years but how can I not like a man who does the positive things he does. I admire what he does with animals and have come to like him. Of course, being the Army driver doesn't hurt, either, so I will be pulling for him."

And I'll be pulling for Young until he's home safely.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.