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Fans Stories and Articles

Funny Joke or Cruel Prank , April 17, 2002

By Flowerpoker

Recently over the Easter holiday the hubby and I
decided to head home to North Carolina to visit family and friends. After a brief visit, we were soon back
on the road again heading back home. As usual, as
soon as we pulled out of my dad's driveway we had the
radio on. No particular station. Just something with
some good music on it. A few blocks from my dad's
house we began to hear what was some sort of
advertisement. Soon I realized it had something to do
with racing and my ears perked up. Stopping to gas up
I remained intent on listening to what was being
broadcast.

Soon I heard what all the commotion was about. A
radio station in the good ole sandhills of NC was
making a very big announcement. To kind of
para-phrase what they were saying, due to the increase
of our postal rates the end of June the United States
Postal Service had come out with a special commerative
3 cent stamp celebrating the life of Nascar legend
Dale Earnhardt. The stamp was going on sale that day
as soon as the post offices across the state of NC
opened.

The radio station soon began receiving calls from
Earnhardt fans "reporting" in on their finds. One
gentleman phoned in and said that he had gone by RCR's
headquarters and said that there were about sixty to
seventy Earnhardt fans lined up in the parking lot.
He said that he had talked with a gentleman who was
there and that he was told that RCR did in fact have
the stamps that everyone was looking for but that the
company was holding them for its employees.

Immediately I told my husband, "This doesn't sound
right." Another lady phoned in and said the stamps
had been sold out at a particular post office but
another post office in a town close by still had them
but that they were going fast. Another guy called in
and said that as soon as he had gotten to work and
loaded his truck with his equipment and his workers to
head out for their jobs that day, that the entire crew
had plans to stop by every post office in order to try
and purchase the stamps. These phone calls continued
for a while.

Finally after this went on for approximately two hours
during our drive the radio announcers came on and
SURPRISE!!!!! April Fool's! That's right. This
radio station pulls a april fool's joke every year.
The one dj stated that he usually tries to come up
with some kind of prank that will poke fun at the
local or federal government. I knew something didn't
sound right especially when they said that the stamps
could only be bought for that day only, and only in
the state of North Carolina.

Well, once the joke was revealed the radio station was
flooded with calls. Some people called in and said,
"yeah, that was a good one" and went along with the
laugh. Others weren't that happy with what they had
pulled especially the district manager who is in
charge of most of the post offices in the entire state
and whose job it is to oversee the issuing of new
stamps for the postal service. I felt so sorry for
this lady when she called in. She was practically
begging the radio station to please make an
announcement that no stamp existed. She said that
post offices across the state were being bombarded
with fans trying to buy the stamps to the point where
they could not wait on the legitimate customers. Lots
of postal workers that day were being treated very
badly and in some cases were being cussed out by the
irrate fans over these stamps. Some workers were even
accused of keeping all of the stamps for themselves
and family and friends and were refusing to sell them
to Dale's fans. One lady even called in and said, "I
just want to let you know that I left home early this
morning and waited in line at the post office to buy
the stamps only to find out there weren't any. By
going by the post office it put me ten minutes late to
work. Just want to let you know that because I was
late to my job they just fired me." The dj's
response?? "Well, lady if you work for someone that
is going to fire you because you are only ten minutes
late to work, then they're not worth working for."
The lady also added that she was very upset because
she was a single parent.

My favorite phone call came in from a very angry man
that told the dj that he was on his way to the radio
station at that very moment and that he was going to
"beat this guy's a@@!" All the dj could do was laugh
and say, "well, I guess I'll pull a Jodie Foster and
head for the panic room or better yet I'll do what
Dick Cheney does and go undergound in a bunker!" I
also read where one supervisor at the uptown Charlotte
post office said he fielded about 150 calls from fans
trying to buy the stamps. The supervisor then said
that next year he was going to plan something real big
for that radio station.

After our trip was over I decided to search the
internet and see if this story had hit yet. I
immediately searched for the radio station. For those
of you who are interested here's the
link-http://www.rock92.com with dj's Chris Kelly and
Chris Demm. I was curious to see if anything had been
written on their site about this fiasco. Much to my
horror I was stopped dead in my tracks and then I
became angry. On the front page of their website was
a "mock-up" version of the 3 cent stamp. The "stamp"
showed a white background with a United States Post
Office Logo. To the left was a picture of Dale
Earnhardt with his signature beneath his picture. In
the middle of the "stamp" was a picture of the #3 car
with a number "3" in the top right corner. The bottom
right hand corner had "USA". Underneath the "stamp"
was this message: "No. There is no Dale Earnhardt
stamp from the US Postal Service. But we think there
should be! Don't be fooled!"

I tried to think about what one of the dj's said on
the trip back. "Hey, I loved Dale Earnhardt and he
did whatever was necessary to win a race. I bet
wherever he is right now he's got a big grin on his
face." Maybe Dale did but I thought about his fans
that are left behind. The only thing I could think of
at the moment was that this radio station was playing
off the emotions and feelings of Dale's fans. In a
lot of ways I thought it was mean and cruel. Even
though Dale is no longer here with us physically he's
still in the hearts of fans and toying with their
feelings aren't so cool in my opinion. I don't care
if it is for a joke.

Funny joke or cruel prank? Decide for yourself. All
I can say is that I hope this radio station's lawyers
are good. I think they'll have their work cut out for
them by the time the United States Postal Service gets
ahold of them.

For more info, I'm including this link for an article
written about this incident.

http://www.thatsracin.com/mld/thatsracin/2984086.htm
Thank goodness it was FOX!!
What would I have done if NBC was broadcastin this weekend? I think I would have done some more housework or taken a really long nap.

Last year there was a rain delay during the Winston. If it had not been for Fox networks then, I would have gone to sleep before the race started instead of staying up until midnight to watch the race.

Now I have to admit that I missed most of the excitement on Saturday because I had stuff to do (I know, bad race fan). I did watch all of the broadcast on Sunday and I have to say "You have to love those FOX boys"! They keep things interesting. There is never a dull moment...they even make dog walking interesting! They even let us see the sweet side of Dale Jr (video can be seen on NASCAR.com). How sweet was it to hear him read that letter from the little girl he met last year? How cute was it when he saw the picture of her now? Now a show of hands, who was touched by that?

Now for what we actually got to see of racing (Busch racing that is). First of all...way to go Jack Sprague!! I love what he did to Jimmy Spencer!! Second, glad Michael is ok after being upside down on fire. Third, way to get out of those pits first Jeff Purvis!

Hopefully the Winston Cup race will run on Monday without rain. Someone please keep me updated as to how Dale Jr is doing since I will be stuck at work!
Written by Heather
Will this go on all year ?

Last year the big story after the Bristol race was not that Elliott Sadler won his first Winston Cup race, but that Tony Stewart turned Jeff Gordon around on pit road after the race. This year, same situation, different drivers.
While Dale Earnhardt, Jr lead the mostlaps on Sunday, Kurt Bush went on to win his first Winston Cup victory. After Busch took the checkered flag, Dale Earnhardt, Jr bumped the side of Robbie Gordon's car. Gordon proceeded to turn Earnhardt, Jr around in pit road. Is it just me, or is there a pattern here?
Will Earnhardt, Jr and R. Gordon have incidents like this all year? When will NASCAR step up and stop this kind of stuff? I for one hope this is the last we see of R. Gordon's temper! Go get 'em NASCAR!!!
Busch race or boxing match?

Anyone who watched the Busch Series race on Saturday had to be asking themselves, "am I watching Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle race or Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis box?". Not only did this race have the most cautions, but I would have to say the most fights, too. These fights make last year's pit road "incident" between Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon look like two old women enjoying a lazy Sunday together.
First we see when Kevin get out of his car and walk over to Biffle's pit area to have a "friendly conversation" with Biffle's crew chief. Then at the end of the race, we see Harvick run across the top of Biffle's car, grab him by the firesuit and proceede to yell at him (I'm sure they were just swapping car care tips). Then while all this is going on, the driver of the car that Spencer spun out on the last lap ran over to Spencer to yell at him. Did Spencer even give him the time of day? I sure didn's see Spencer acknowledge the other driver. *Personal note to self...another reason I don't like Spencer*
What will Sunday's Winston Cup race be like? Will it be similar to Saturday's race? I guess we will just have to wait and see.*Note to Jr...Stay away from the crashing cars...stay away from the angrey men...stay away from Spencer*

Should women be allowed to race?

Absolutely!! Is the reason for the crash with Dale Earnhardt Jr do to the fact she is a woman? No! It was a rookie mistake.

Should she have given Dale Jr more consideration? Probably! But, I don't even think I can count all the times lapped cars have caused wrecks because they were racing with the leaders. That's what we want to see...racing, not a bunch of Grannies out on a Sunday drive! All of these guys (and Shawna) are there to try their best to win the race and you cannot win a race by backing off and letting everyone pass by you!