Metro Roundup: NASCAR becomes traveling hobby for Trussville couple

When their adventures started, Ellen Turner barely knew how to change a tire.

But now, after more than two dozen trips to NASCAR races, she can help her husband, Daniel Turner, take out and repair the U-joints on their van’s drive shaft. She would not have known what or where that was a year ago.

“Everything on our trips is about finding the positive,” said Ellen, a 2006 Hewitt-Trussville High School graduate. “When traveling in a 29-year-old van, for hundreds of miles at a time, we know there are going to be challenges. We’ve broken down all over the country. However, the amount I have learned is indispensable.”

Daniel Turner, a 2005 graduate of Hewitt-Trussville High School, said that NASCAR provides a great atmosphere to relax and be entertained, as well as time for the married couple to enjoy the outdoors together.

“Regarding road trips, we’ve learned a very valuable life lesson that ‘it isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey,’” Daniel said. “This mindset helps us have a good time from start to finish on our trips.”

The couple, now living in Leeds, went to Hewitt-Trussville High School’s junior high homecoming dance together and dated most of high school and into college. The two married Feb. 9, 2019. Ellen is a business education teacher at Moody High School and Daniel is an engineer in Birmingham. It was during college that both discovered their love for NASCAR.

“I love NASCAR for the speed and the fan access,” said Daniel, who grew up rooting for Bill Elliott and now cheers on his son, Chase Elliott. “Only in NASCAR can you listen in to the driver while they’re in the race doing their job, analogous to listening to Tom Brady in the huddle. Further on the fan access, only in NASCAR can you meet a driver and talk to him and get an autograph minutes before he straps into the car before a race.”

Ellen also cheers on Chase Elliott.

“He just seems to be a good Southern boy, carrying on the family legacy,” she said. “I also like that he’s younger than many of the drivers. He started racing in the series around the same time we started going to races regularly, so that created a connection for me.”

Daniel has been to 40 races. Together, the couple has been to 25 races, including tracks at Indianapolis (Ind.), Daytona (Fla.), Bristol (Tenn.), Darlington (S.C.), Martinsville (Va.), Charlotte (N.C.), Atlanta (Ga.) and Talladega (Ala.).

“My interest grew as I learned more about the technical aspects of the sport and learning how very small changes make a big difference on the track,” Daniel said. “The science and calculation that goes into the preparation of the race cars is extremely in-depth and fascinates me.”

That particular fascination has proved beneficial for the Turners. Ellen has joked for years about wanting to live on a school bus or in a tiny house. In 2017, the couple traveled and camped for six race weekends.

“We were tent camping then and the amount of time and energy that went into packing for the weekend, unloading at the track, reloading, and unpacking once we got home, was just so much work,” Ellen said. “Hours and hours of work. Not to mention, the struggles that come with camping in a tent when it comes to unideal weather conditions. One Talladega weekend, a severe thunderstorm came. That night we woke up, soaking wet, our tent caving in on us, on a deflated air mattress. That was the final straw; we had had enough.”

The search began for campers, but Ellen’s heart was set on a van. The winning vehicle was a 1990 Dodge B350, a 15-passenger van the couple purchased for $1,400.

“As far as the mileage goes, your guess is as good as ours,” Ellen said. “It hasn’t moved from 94,000 since we bought it in November 2017. We’ve kept up with our own mileage ourselves, putting about 13,000 on it since we bought it.”

The couple worked on the van day and night for four days to renovate the necessities. They gutted it down to the metal frame. They added their own insulation to the floor, walls and ceiling, covering that with wood paneling and vinyl flooring. They built a queen-size bed frame so Daniel’s feet don’t hang off. The space under the bed is reserved for camping gear. They even designed and constructed their own 120-quart cooler, which keeps ice about two weeks, using home insulation.

Since that first overhaul, they have added shelves, compartments and other customizations. Daniel taught himself to weld last year and built a roof deck from scratch. He installed an electrical system that includes motion- and switch-activated LED lights, a rooftop vent fan, two backup cameras, USB outlets and more. A solar panel mounted on the roof deck is used for charging two deep cycle marine batteries, which power most of the electronics in the van.

“It’s great for camping off grid and times when we don’t want to run a generator,” Ellen said. “We also installed an air conditioning window unit in the back. It draws a little more power, so we also have a generator we use if needed. We have an outdoor shower setup for hot showers.”

The van even has a toilet. Many mechanical parts of the van have been replaced, earning Daniel the title of “YouTube mechanic.”

“He’s replaced fuel lines, steering components, and countless other valves, hoses, and parts,” Ellen said. “Some have been planned maintenance, and others have been unplanned, while broken down on the side of the road.”

On a trip to the Grand Canyon, the couple nearly wrecked and drove off a medium-grade cliff, Daniel said. The roads were frozen, and the speed limits were still 75 mph. Traveling 55 mph to stay with the flow of traffic, they approached a valley with a three-car pileup in the middle of the road. It was a two-lane road with a shoulder on either side. The left side had a mountain going upwards, and the right side had a downward cliff. As the couple approached the wreck, Daniel said, the van would not stop; it would only go into a four-wheel slide.

“Once I realized we couldn’t stop, I realized our only two choices were to drive into a mountain on the left, or off a cliff on the right,” Daniel said. “I thought, if I stay straight, we are going to hit all these cars, and most likely kill someone. If I drive to the left and hit this mountain, we will come to a sudden stop and also most likely die. If I drive off the cliff to the right, maybe the trees will slow us down enough to live, although the van will undoubtedly be totaled. In a split second I began to drive off the cliff and accept our fate, but figured it was still worth a shot to try and save it.”

As the van missed the wreckage by inches, and teetered off the side of the mountain, instead of hitting the brakes and causing more slide, Daniel said he pushed the gas pedal to the floor and the van began to drift sideways with the front tires hanging on the shoulder and the rear tires down the hill spinning up snow and ice, the van hung on to the side of the cliff just enough not to fall down, and they eventually clawed their way up onto the icy road again and survived. As the van swerved back onto the road, the van waggled left and right several more times in effort to correct the spin.

The trip turned out to be a great one, as Daniel proposed to Ellen, who had no idea that the big question was coming. A secret camera recorded the proposal.

The couple agreed that people not tuning in for NASCAR races are missing out on a sport that puts fans first and allows firsthand access to pit crews, drivers and more.

“The technicality of tuning a machine and subsequently wielding that machine on the edge of control for 500 miles is a sporting challenge that is second to none,” Daniel said.

Ellen said she tries to have people imagine driving their own cars at 190 mph on the interstate with other cars inches away from them. Further, she then adds a 33-degree banking, putting your car almost on its side. Walking up the track at Talladega is likened to climbing a wall.

“Beyond the racing, it’s a three- to four-day tailgate,” Ellen said. “How could I not get on board with that? We’ve met so many cool people. Some we’ve met up with at other tracks and have become real friends with. We’ve got our own little NASCAR family.”

The couple plans on being at Talladega this April.* They hope to add more tracks to their growing list, including Watkins Glen in New York. The more trips they take, the more they learn together.

“When you break down or something goes wrong, you can’t let yourself get mad and frustrated,” Ellen said. “It forces us to lean on each other, work together and solve problems. I try to look at, as well, we get to spend even more time together on the road than we had planned. It’s all a part of the adventure.”

*EDITOR’S NOTE: NASCAR’s weekend at Talladega (scheduled for April 24-26) has been postponed.