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closeHospital confession makes dream come true
Teen gets chance to live out fantasy of driving Camaro around speedway
By Mark Price
The Charlotte Observer
Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008
Casey Hepp gives her fiance' Matt Krueger, 19, some final words before his test run on the Lowe's Motor Speedway track. Krueger, from Ixonia, Wis., was diagnosed with a rare stomach cancer. He was surprised with chance to drive his 1999 Z28 Camaro on Lowe's track for 30 minutes. Matt his family and friends drove 15 hours to Charlotte for this chance of a dream. -- T.ORTEGA GAINES-ogaines@charlotteobserver.com
Matt Krueger, 19, was recovering from his first colon cancer surgery on the day he confessed his dream to a hospital nurse.
He wanted to get his 1999 Camaro Z28 out onto one of NASCAR's big tracks, to see if it would actually go the 155 mph promised on the speedometer.
What Krueger didn't realize, was that his nurse knew somebody at a tire store, who knew somebody at the Carquest Corp., who knew somebody at Lowe's Motor Speedway, who could make his dream come true.
And so it did.
On Friday, the Wisconsin teen and his blue Camaro had an uninterrupted half-hour together on the track. Speedway officials offered the chance after hearing of Krueger's story, including his diagnosis last month with a rare and aggressive cancer known as mucinous adenocarcinoma.
“Nervous? Yeah, I'm nervous,” said Krueger, as he waited for the flag. “We got here about 3 a.m. and I didn't sleep more than a half hour.”
Equally nervous were the dozen family and friends who watched nervously from the infield, including his parents, siblings, fiancee, best friend and a truck driver, Mel Simonds, who agreed to skip Thanksgiving and haul the Camaro on a trailer. All spent Thanksgiving Day on the interstate, making the 16-hour drive to Lowe's from their hometown of Ixonia, Wis.
“When we first found out about Matt's diagnosis,” said his mother Kitty Krueger, “the doctor said: ‘Now is the time to take a trip. Go to Europe, and do something you've always wanted to do.' Matt could have gone anywhere, done anything, but he kept saying ‘no' until this came up. It took him less than two minutes to think it over.”
Clearly, cancer was the last thing on Matt Krueger's mind as he climbed into his Camaro at 8:30 a.m., fired up an engine with 82,000 miles on it and set off a pair of rumbling mufflers. Krueger eased onto the track, barely visible through tinted windows, as he cautiously followed a pace car for three practice laps.
That done, he had his big chance to take off solo and go as fast as 350 horsepower would allow. But something different happened.
Over the next half hour, he pulled into the infield every few laps, to pick up his best friend, his father, his fiancee, his brother, his sister and even his reluctant mother.
All had their turn in the car, moaning and grabbing at the dashboard as he topped 100 mph. “I feel like I've been on a roller coaster,” said his mother, holding her forehead. “All I kept thinking was ‘don't hit the wall, don't hit the wall, don't hit the wall.'”
Matt Krueger and his Camaro never made it to 155 mph. The fastest he got was 135, before the car skidded toward the wall. It didn't matter.
“My having cancer has brought everyone closer together, and I thank God for that,” Krueger said. “He has a plan for me, and I intend to be here for a while.”
Besides, he has a new dream.
“I didn't get to pass anybody.”