First of all, A very special thanks to Joe Maloof, Gene Trimble and the entire Palms Casino crew for hosting such a wonderful event as the National Hot Road Association "Drivers Meet & Greet" Thursday night, April 10th at the Palms Casino in the Key West Room....this was an incredible event!
Darrell and I arrived at the Palms Thursday morning at 10 am for the chip release and as always, it was great to see old and new chipper friends!
We returned to the Palms around 4:30 pm that evening and hunkered down in the #1 and #2 place in line to enter the showroom. Many NHRA drivers arrived and said hello as they passed us on their way into the showroom (no going the "back way" for these working guys and gals. They shook hands and chatted with those in line).
When the doors opened, I was impressed with how well set up and executed the meet & greet was done. No wild crowds allowed here, everyone was kept orderly and a GREAT time was had by all.
Around 20+ drivers were there to sign autographs and everyone of them were nothing less than professional, polite and genuinely friendly. No matter what or how much of something (chips, cards, magazines, posters, etc, etc) you brought, the drivers signed them all with a smile.
The Palms released 3 limited edition chips for the signing:

Jeg Coughlin Jr (NHRA Pro Stock Champion) - Nice, quiet young man. Asked which side of chips we'd like them signed on. Very careful handling chips.
Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel Champion) - Took extra care with the pen to get a clear autograph. Talked and joked with us.
Tony Pedregon (Funny Car Champion) - Talk about a showman! Since we were first in line, Tony was still taking pictures with his newly unveiled Palms sponsored funny car (awesome car Gene!). He literally slid under the show ropes to quickly get back to his table to sign autographs.....very friendly and chatted for a few moments with every fan. I wanted to take a quick photo of him signing the chips, but he insisted on standing up and showing the chips for the photo. Genuinely a nice, down to earth person!

If you ever get a chance to go to a NHRA driver meet & greet - go, go, GO!!!!

The Palms unveiled the new Tony Pedregon car and Darrell about wet himself standing with the 4 beautiful Palms girls for a photo with the multi-million dollar funny car.

He also wanted the Palms golf cart until he found out it cost $4,000 to build!

I was glad that we arrived early enough to be first in line, as when we left the fan line went from the Key West ballroom, through the casino, through the sports book and to the back casino door. Holy cow!

Once again, thanks to everyone at the Palms - this was GREAT!!!

Darrell with the Palms girls and Tony Pedregon's new Palms funny car :