The Seat Next to Me

Not only is Brad a hero to me, or all the members on the site, he has a much bigger impact. The only person that jumped on the Brad train in 2007 before signing with JR Motorsports is someone I’m proud to call my friend.

As mentioned in my previous contributions, I am an avid Brad Keselowski trading card collector. And I am not the only one out there. Over the last year, I’ve had the pleasure to get to know fellow BK fan, Tony D. I had been trading and communicating with him since early 2010, but up until June 2012, it was nothing more than that. Like all of us, around the holidays of 2011, he was having some darker days that even caused him to give up trading and collecting for some time. That’s like a racecar driver wanting to take a break from driving – and something must be horribly wrong for that. So in June of last year, I had an email from him saying he’s had a change in heart, and wants to help out my collection, and just get along in general. Another racing reference now: before that email I would have considered him as a “teammate.” You want to see them do well, but at the end of the day, you want to beat them. Or in my case, get the card. I fully accepted it, and it’s been history since there.

Without Brad, I’d never get to know Tony, and would be missing a huge part of my life.

Things may have started out smaller — we would talk for a couple hours about cards. I had some extras he could use, and he had some extras that I could use in return. From there, it was different. At some point, it changed from just being trading friends to real friends. Sometimes, one of us would pick up the phone and talk about our day, or family, or whatever was on our mind. There were lots of days when racing wasn’t even mentioned!

Over the last two months or so, after I realized I would be at the June Michigan Cup race, I realized that I’d be a lot closer to him in Chicago than where I live in the Pocono Mountains. We we’re able to talk it over, and found a place to meet up in between.

While we met up, we had a couple minutes to chat. Of course, we each had a couple goodies for each other. In addition to him collecting Brad’s trading cards, he also collects hero cards (or, really just anything with Brad’s name on it). His hero card collection, like his trading card collection, is stellar, and I set out a goal for myself to find something to add to it. I left home with four cards for him, and at the Michigan race I found an exclusive hero card only given out at that race, and knew I needed to snag an extra for Tony! When I pulled them out of the envelope in front of him, that look on his face was priceless and could not be made up. I wish I would have taken a picture of that!

In the last several years, not only has Brad outperformed on track: he had also attracted two diehard fans to follow him. Without Brad, I’d never get to know Tony, and would be missing a huge part of my life.