Story Notes: 7 · 9:18pm Dec 14th, 2023
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
This story owes its existence to a pair of Kulwicki Coincidences. There have been a bunch of weird coincidences in my life that have revolved around Alan Kulwicki. This fic is a direct result of two of them.
Last year (2022) at Ponyville CiderFest I was walking from the Hilton to Doc’s BBQ when I randomly looked to the left at the wall of sports figures alongside me…
…and I saw Alan Kulwicki looking back at me. There are more than one hundred inductees, and Kulwicki is the only racecar driver.
That was the genesis of this story. When I got home, I did a little research and discovered that there was a park dedicated to him less than twenty minutes from the convention hotel. I already knew I’d be going back to PVCF – I had too much fun last year to miss it this year.
So I began planning a pilgrimage on my way home. My first thought was to take a Polish victory lap. From there, I had a seed – an intended sequel to 3AM.
It’s a bit of a stretch to call the next part a Kulwicki Coincidence, yet the timing was too perfect.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1025934/the-day-of-the-dead-anthology
With that, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. My story had direction. The story would become a full tribute to Alan Kulwicki.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Truthfully, half of this story was written the week before this year’s PVCF, before I’d even set foot in the park. The ideas started flowing and the story just came out, even as I was trying to focus on the next chapter of 16 instead.
It was around that time that I extended an invitation to Admiral Biscuit to join me on an expedition on Monday after PVCF. I didn’t give him the details until we were at the convention, but he expressed interest in accompanying me.
We had fun at the park – we spent more than an hour exploring the park and its immediate surroundings.
Unfortunately, the Brooks pavilion was locked up, so there was no perusing the memorabilia on display except through the windows. Just means I’ll have to stop back again next year. Because I certainly plan on going to Ponyville CiderFest yet again in 2024! Thankfully, next year’s con will be a few weeks earlier. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the building will be open. Maybe it’s only open when there’s a Little League game. I honestly don’t know. But I want to find out.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
When I found out he passed, I cried for hours. But not at school, where everyone took great delight in tormenting me – I wouldn’t give my classmates the satisfaction. I compartmentalized those emotions and cried once I got home. It was a rough period in my life and watching NASCAR races was one of the highlights I had at the time.
I felt a need to say ‘goodbye’ and it needed to be on my terms. I’ve always been an iconoclast. It’s why Special K resonates with me more these days than Awesome Bill from Dawsonville. What better way to say goodbye (thirty years late) than by doing a Kulwicki victory lap around Kulwicki Park?
Checkered flag? Check. That’s left over from a promotion at a previous job years ago. It’s not a real flag, but it’s close enough.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Wildcat Creek, and the Root River that it flows into, are both considered ‘impaired’ by the federal government due to phosphorus, chlorides (road salt), and sediment, in addition to degraded habitat. ‘Chronic aquatic toxicity’ is how it’s phrased on the sign.
Graffiti under a highway overpass? Nothing surprising about that. That the graffiti is measurements of toxicity in particles per million? That’s a new one.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Alan Kulwicki Park boasts two playgrounds.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Admiral Biscuit joined me on my pilgrimage, and was happy to offer ideas, advice, and even pose for some photos. In addition to editing the story once it was done. Thanks to him, there’s more than a thousand words of additional content that weren’t in the first draft. With his help, it flows much better than it did. It’s still a series of information dumps, and my apologies for that. For those who like NASCAR, this will be enjoyable. For those who don’t, there should be enough cute pony action here to make it a worthwhile read regardless.
A big thank you to him for his help on this, as well as to Wanderer D for taking a look in advance as well. Also big thanks to Wanderer D for the Day of the Dead Anthology. I believe this is the first submission – hopefully many more follow!
There are no folders in the group at the moment so I can’t technically submit it yet.
Source: https://derpibooru.org/images/2810959
Petunia Paleo, conveniently celebrating Dia de los Muertos. With her cutie mark, it’s not surprising that there’s quite a bit of fan art for her celebrating the Day of the Dead.
Petunia was really the only appropriate traveling companion for this story. I wanted somepony who’d listen with interest and ask relevant questions (Minty just doesn’t have the attention span). Furthermore, Petunia is open to discussing death and has some interesting views on the subject. Fossils are her passion, and gives her a unique perspective.
Sorry that this is the only cute pony pic in this blog. I hope that Petunia being super adorable makes up for the lack of quantity! I know we’re here for ponies, but I wanted to share these photos from the park.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Today would’ve been Alan’s 69th birthday.
It’s also Hershel McGriff’s birthday. And mine. Two NASCAR Hall of Famers share a birthday with me. Hershel is 96 today. I had the opportunity to meet Hershel a few years ago. He was part of the Kyle Petty Charity Ride and I got to chat with him briefly, and of course get an autograph and a picture with him. He was one of the starters in the first Darlington Southern 500 in 1950. His most recent start in a NASCAR-sanctioned race was in 2018. He and Red Farmer like to trade the title of ‘world’s oldest racecar driver’ back and forth between them.
Speaking of Red Farmer, he was Davey Allison’s passenger in that tragic 1993 helicopter crash. Davey was the pilot and was killed. Red survived with a broken collarbone and fractured ribs.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Petunia references a few NASCAR-themed movies – Cars and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The first is the Pixar franchise, while the second is Will Ferrell’s comedy. I’ve seen it, and I’d consider it appropriate for Petunia even if it’s not exactly rated ‘G’.
Shake and Bake!
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
The first Kulwicki Coincidence occurred when he was still alive and I was in school. Our teacher had us do chores around the classroom, and she’d pick a number to determine who got what chore. Going to get the mail was the preferred task.
We had a class of approximately twenty students. I want to state that this was an honors class.
I mention this because the teacher picked a number between one and twenty-five. Somehow we went around the entire class four times without a correct guess. Right after my fourth guess Alan Kulwicki’s name popped into my head. Not the number ‘seven’ but specifically ‘Alan Kulwicki’. Amazingly, no one guessed correctly on the next circuit of the room and I answered with seven. Which, of course, was the correct number. So I got mail duty for the next few months.
I had originally wanted to include this story in the fic, but it didn’t really fit well anywhere. But that was the first of the Kulwicki Coincidences.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
You may remember I released a short story by the name Entry 735 a few weeks ago. 35 was Kulwicki’s first Cup Series number, while 7 was his most famous number. Since this was written at Ponyville CiderFest in Milwaukee, I thought this would be a nice tribute to Alan as well.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
Above we see the Wildcat Creek and the bridge.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
I have a picture hanging on the back of my computer room. I drew it in middle school based off a picture in either Stock Car Racing or Circle Track magazine. Remember magazines? I’m dating myself.* It features Kulwicki's car obscuring Bill's in a photo finish.
*I pretty much have to date myself, because nobody else will. 
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
The only reason my stop at Mac’s Macaroni & Cheese is included in this story is because I legitimately got order #7. It was the perfect finale to both my pilgrimage and the story.
Coincidences rock.
Source: AlwaysDressesInStyle
What did poor Petunia do to have to sit in a hotel in Milwaukee for three days while Mr. Adultman presumably did a business? I hope she at least got to binge Laverne and Shirley.
5759092
The implication is we were there for Ponyville CiderFest (though having a MLP convention in-universe would be weird, so I left it ambiguous). I probably should've made this clearer - she wasn't cooped up in the room, merely confined to the hotel unless we traveled offsite for meals. There's no good place to gallop in the hotel or downtown Milwaukee. She's an earth pony, and sometimes she just needs to get outside and run like the wind.
I am a bit of a history buff, so perhaps Petunia and I could have a conversation. I'm not much into sports of any kind, so all the Nascar jargon kind of went over my head. I used to cheer on the Royals from KC but that's more due to nostalgia than any real "fan loyalty".
Hope to chat again sometime besides a 3-minute run-in in the cider lounge
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She'd enjoy that.
Likewise! I plan to be at CiderFest again next year.
This was a terrific story! I liked the history and that you picked Petunia to accompany you. It was an interesting idea to show how being different and unique is a good way to live one’s life. Believe me, I understand the feelings you and Petunia discussed.
This was a great first entry into the Day of the Dead folder. Thank you for a wonderful story.
5759213
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed!
5759210
I'm debating whether to do Ciderfest or try one of the others like EFNW or the one in Ohio. Don't get me wrong if I had the money I'd love to do more than one con a year.
5759255
I've been to TrotCon, Seaquestria, and CiderFest. Hooves down, if I could only go to one of them... CiderFest (even though it's the furthest of these three for me). Seaquestria would be my second choice since it's the closest and also usually coincides with Cruise Week (it's also a smaller con, so there's more downtime for socializing). TrotCon is a good con too, but I've had more fun at PVCF both years I've gone.
I'm sorry you had such trouble at school.
Ah, but happy belated birthday!
And thanks for the blog post too. :)
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Thank you!