The King of stock car racing meets the King of Rock and Roll at the Tupelo Automobile Museum

If it seems like I didn’t get to any local car shows last weekend, you’d be right. I was in Memphis attending a wedding. But I didn’t forget about you. We actually took a whole extra day to shuffle on down to Tupelo, Miss., and check out the great collection at the Tupelo Automobile Museum.

The museum was the work of southern communications magnate and car aficionado Frank Spain and his pal Max Berryhill. Spain actually started buying cars in the early 1970s, and the collection became so big that the 120,000-sq/ft museum was opened in 2002.

Hamlin wins the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway

The NASCAR weekends at Kansas Speedway are among, if not the biggest events in the area.  I'm not just talking about car-related.  I mean biggest period.  The sheer number of people in attendance is staggering, and the number of people who are watching it via TV or Internet, or listening to it on the radio, is several times bigger than that yet.

Since the focus here is Kansas City car events, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about this weekend's STP 400 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and of course the SPF 250 for the NASCAR Camping World Trucks.

Chillaxin' during the Friday NASCAR Sprint Cup practice at Kansas Speedway

I used to really love race cars. I loved the way they sounded. I loved the way they smelled. I loved the way their bright paint schemes gleamed in the sun. I just loved watching them.

And then somewhere along the way, I kind of lost track of what I actually loved about them. Once I quit working at the local race tracks, had a son, and found other things to occupy my time, I stopped going to the races nearly as often.