Clark Ruhland, the outgoing associate sports editor of the Virginia Tech student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, was among the visiting dignitaries introduced during Sunday’s drivers meeting. He addressed the crowd briefly, expressing appreciation for the support the drivers have given in the campus’ time of healing. The cars Sunday carried VT stickers above the driver’s nameplate. Denny Hamlin wore the distinctive VT last week at Phoenix. Ward Burton toured the campus, visiting the engineering department that felt a heavy toll of the tragedy. The circuit goes to Richmond next week and Ruhland, who graduates in two weeks, expects the outpouring to be over the top. It’s going to be amazing, he said. It’ll be like a Tech football game, half the stands will be orange and half will be red. I’m sure 4-5 times as many drivers will be wearing Tech (colors). It’ll mean a lot to the students and alumni. It’s Richmond. Half the alumni base is either in the Richmond or D.C. areas, and they all come to the races. Ruhland, a big race fan with aspirations of being a journalist, couldn’t let the visit to Talladega pass without doing some networking. He dropped his resume off to NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter, which everyone said wasn’t a bad move.(Anniston Star)(4-30-2007)
