Mark Martin signing autographs while walking to a Q&A.

This week was an off week so my parents and I headed off to Batesville, AR for Mark Martin's fan day. It's about a six hour drive one way and worth every minute. To be honest I'm not really for sure where to start so I guess I'll just jump right in and give you a highlight of what there is to do and some of our stories from the day.

Before I get into anything else I have to give Mark Martin his due. He did a wonderful job with this fan day. Now I haven't been to any other ones so I don't have a lot to compare it to but I can say that Mark did everything in his power to make sure you had a good time while there. The man must have had 5 different random autograph sessions during the day and that doesn't count the time he spent signing while he was running to the next thing. If you wanted to meet him you got to end of story. All three of us ended up with autographs and truth be told I think my mom ended up with three different things signed! Haha! I never saw him not smiling and he had wonderful things to say about his home town of Batesville and all of us fans there.

So that being said let's move onto the two guest that Mark had invited along for the Friday fans; none other than Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Now Rick was the first up for a quick autograph session and then a Q&A with Mark and us fans. Over all he was a very well spoken man and answered questions like any well established team owner would. He even had me thinking that maybe just maybe I had been too hard on him in the past... but fear not he soon snapped me back into reality with a quick jab on Kyle Busch which by the way the crowd LOVED! I'm not the kind of person who doesn't get a joke so I laughed it off plus I know how to look around and know that I'm WAY out numbered so I kept all objection to myself. Later in the day my parents and I were discussing Rick's answers and my dad gave us the full story on one of them which made me feel stupid for just going along and thinking that Rick might actually tell the WHOLE truth about something. But I'll save that whole rant for another time.

Now Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't get there until later in the day to do his autograph signing and then he also did a Q&A with Mark and the fans. Dale's Q&A turned into more of an autograph session than a question and answer but I will say that I saw a much different Dale than I was used to. He seemed much more laid back and never turned a fan away in that Q&A session so I do have to say that I was impressed with him it was nice to see him enjoying himself.

We met some interesting folks and had a great time. I don't think we stopped talking about it the whole time I was home. We are already making plans to be there both days next year so that should tell you something. So if you get the chance I would say go to these fan days it's probably your best bet for meeting your favorite driver and getting to see a new side of them.

Also new video up you can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvo3rBICg...