Trouble in Turn2

Do you know Amy Peterman? Maybe not. But I bet you know Trixie, of Trixie’s Trailer Park and NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest.

How long have you blogged? I have been blogging about three years now. I can’t even believe I have kept The Park going for that long.

What made you start blogging? Why do you blog?
What I started out blogging, it was a way to keep myself busy during the day at work. At the time The Park was born I worked in an office where I finished most of my work with two hours of being at work. I needed something to keep me busy so voila here we are. Even after moving on from the job, I continued blogging. My friends, family, and co-workers just didn’t get the whole NASCAR thing. I mean someone actually told me the only reason I was a NASCAR fan was I like to watch cars crash. But as well know, there is SO MUCH more to NASCAR than crashes and I wanted others to know that.

What are your goals for your blog?
I achieved one of the goals already. I started out with only my husband and another friend of mine reading The Park. Now I have a few more readers who not only lurk, but stop by and comment. I guess my ultimate goal would be to parlay The Park into a gig that could pay the bills. I know that it’s a lofty goal for me, but hey you just never know until you take that leap of faith.

Where do you blog from?
I usually end up blogging from home most of the time even with a 4-year old boy running around the place. Lately I have been working on my blog at work which sounds bad, but there are some down times where I have the opportunity to work on The Park.

How did you get the name for your blog?
I have several student loans to pay for so I sent out notices for the opportunity to have the exclusive naming rights for my blog. I spend several days and nights pouring over sponsors who were willing to be the exclusive sponsor of my blog that…seriously it was less spectacular than that. I wanted the name to be something that truly stated who I was and what I was all about. Plus, I didn’t really like “What’s this Thing Called NASCAR All About?” Hey, that sounds like a cool name too. Maybe I should have gone with that instead. The real story…Trixie came from my alter ego. Trixie grew up in a trailer park and is proud of her redneck and hillbilly roots. Trixie lives in a trailer park and loves NASCAR. I know this may buy into the whole stereotype of a NASCAR fan, but if you have visited The Park, this is so far from the truth.

How long have you been a NASCAR fan?
I watched NASCAR while growing up, but the whole NASCAR passion didn’t manifest itself until about 2003. I have been consumed by NASCAR ever since.

What races do you attend?
The only ones I have attended are the ones at Texas Motor Speedway. I was able to attend the first fall race at TMS back in 2005. I would love to be able to attend other races, but at the moment Texas is the place for me to get my fix. I am hoping to make the pilgrimage to Daytona 500 one of these days.

What do you enjoy about your blog and the NASCAR blogging community? I love being able to discuss my opinions about virtually anything involving NASCAR and not feel like I am offending anyone. I have tried to participate in other blogging communities, but felt I had to hold back on my opinions. The NASCAR blogging community is one who values and respects your opinion even if they disagree with you. We may disagree about topics and/or drivers on a daily business, but in the end when we as a NASCAR nation are attacked (i.e. comments from political officials) we all come together as one.

Is there anything you don’t enjoy about blogging, or the NASCAR online community? I think the only thing I don’t enjoy about blogging is the guilt I feel when I don’t post on The Park. Since becoming a contributor on another site, I feel as if I need to come up with some thought provoking post, but I don’t always have it in me. I worry that I won’t have anything interesting to say and others will feel like I don’t belong who don’t have a clue what I am talking about.

How much time per day do you spend blogging?
It can vary on a daily basis. Most days I spend about 4-5 hours. I don’t know if this is a lot of time or not enough time, but if I could I would spend more time fine tuning some things on The Park.

Do you have a favorite driver? As with all NASCAR fans, we all have that one driver we cheer for every weekend. My favorite driver is Tony Stewart. But Tony wasn’t always my number one driver. When my passion for NASCAR started back in 2003, I was a Jeff Gordon fan. There I said it. So how did Tony come into the picture? I needed a driver that could give me more of what I wanted out of driver and Tony fit the bill. I liked his attitude towards his racing and towards life. I guess ultimately I like bad boys and well I don’t see Jeff Gordon as a bad boy.

Is there one thing that was a key to your blog’s success? One key has been staying true to The Park’s personality. In the beginning I wanted The Park to be a blog anybody would want to read, but found it was too time consuming for me. I decided to focus on NASCAR and intertwine bits of my own life throughout.

Name something cool that has come as a result of your blog. Well it all depends on what your definition of cool is. I guess being profiled on another blog is a cool thing. I never thought of myself as a writer. I knew I had something to say, but I just never knew people were interested in what I had to say.

Another thing was to have a local sports radio show link back to my blog on their site. It was the first time my site was linked on another site other than on a friend’s blog.

Do you have any strange or funny stories about your blog (funny or outrageous comments or emails from people, etc.)? I can’t say that I have any strange or funny stories about my blog. The only one I have that I like to share with my first time readers is the post about the Big Green Book Bag. I didn’t have anything of value to say so I decided to take out my green book bag and took inventory of the items. This is my favorite post to date with the exception of the Trixie Awards post.

What is something your readers wouldn’t otherwise know about you or your blog? I work as an academic advisor for a major university in Texas. I don’t usually talk about my job on The Park because I want to protect the innocent, guilty and the complete morons that I am for an interesting read and I would love to one day turn it into a book. Trust me, you think NASCAR is unpredictable, you should try telling a student he or she is not going to graduate with a degree.

Rapid Fire: In one or two words, how do you feel about the following:
Kyle Busch? Sprint Cup Champion
Top 35 Rule? Get rid of it
Car of Tomorrow/Today? A work in progress
Race that Dale Jr finally wins? Get it done already (sorry, I know that was more than two words, but it’s how I feel)
Tony Stewart’s 2009 Destination? Not at Joe Gibbs Racing
Night Races? Bring ‘em on!