Vacation hotspot: Old Dominion Speedway thrills

It's nice when a plan comes together.

It's even nicer when a plan lives up to expectations -- from getting there, to getting in, to the accessories, the personalities and getting out again.

And so it was at Old Dominion Speedway in Virginia last Saturday -- the midpoint of the first two-week vacation in what seems like forever and probably just about has been.

Writer's Block

David Rodman enjoys a night of hard-core, short-track racing ... and some good eats, too.

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It's incredible when you look back on it, considering it was triggered by a piece of old-school race promoting that would have made Big Bill France proud -- a sign stuck in the ground in front of a BP gas station, of all places -- four or five towns away from the speedway.

It's a little embarrassing to admit Old Dominion, which I've known about for going on three decades, was only 20 minutes from an area where I've spent a lot of time in the past five years, visiting my grandkids -- but I never knew the track was there.

But once the proverbial cat was out of the bag, plenty of people sent me e-mails indicating how on-time the show was, how reasonable the prices were, and just what food items to regale my palate with.

Every prediction was right on the money -- right down to that "little piece of heaven on a paper tray," the "porky tater."

Ron Hornaday had barely gotten out of his Late Model Stock Car after suffering a broken shock mount, when he caught wind of the presence of porky taters at this facility. Actually, he had no clue what they were.

But once he was clued in, "get me one" was the next thing out of his mouth.

So I'm here to tell you, this special-event stop on the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series schedule was totally on target for a number of people, including a handful of NASCAR and Grand-Am Rolex Series celebrities.

The coolest thing was that most of them weren't even in an off weekend to do it! And what was the best part? Track owner Steve Britt had a plane in St. Louis to get Hornaday and fellow Truck racer Max Papis to Manassas Regional Airport -- right near the track -- and then another to get the pair and David Stremme back to North Carolina after they'd signed every autograph for the several hundred fans who streamed into the infield after racing was through.

Of course, Johnny Benson's piddling around with any number of things while he tries to get enough sponsorship to get into one of Kyle Busch's Camping World Trucks -- or something else equally racy.

Stremme did have a weekend off from racing Bill Jenkins' No. 26 Ford in Sprint Cup -- but Old Dominion's 150-lap Youth For Tomorrow Late Model Stock Car special was either his fourth or fifth race of the week. Even I lost track.

"I just love to race," Stremme said later of his week's path that had sent him from the Midwest to North Carolina and Virginia -- on both pavement and dirt. "I've got a couple Late Models and a dirt [Modified] car -- Kenny Wallace and [Ken] Schrader got me hooked on that." (Continued)