In this weekend’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Knoxville, Norm Benning’s No. 6 Chevrolet Silverado will be carrying the names of more than 130 supporters, through Circle B Diecast’s “Ride with Norm Benning” program.
Although there is one message, in particular, that resides on the bed of Benning’s Chevrolet Silverado, that holds a very special meaning to one race fan, and an even more special story behind it.
That message reads: “In Memory of Marie Power Nee Levins”.
In December 2019, Marie was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer. After undergoing radiation and chemotherapy through June 2020, Marie underwent an appendectomy later that year, where a tumor was discovered in her bowels, where it was determined she had lower bowel cancer.
After her bowels stopped functioning between Christmas and New Years, Marie was hospitalized off and on between January and March of 2022. It would be determined that Marie’s cancer was incurable. In April, Marie succumbed to the cancer.
Throughout the entire journey, Marie’s son, Robbie, sought out the moral support of an online community via Discord called the ‘Left Turn Lounge’, where he would occasionally provide updates about his mother’s condition.
In this Discord server of 5,500-plus NASCAR fans, Robbie found the support of many community members, through messages of heartfelt support, messages he said were an enormous factor in him being able to make it through the grieving process.
“The guys in the Left Turn Lounge server have been really nice to me and they helped me through the mourning period,” Robbie Power told TobyChristie.com. “I’m planning on returning the favor to the LTL server by asking the mods if I could help organize a race on iRacing as a thank you.”
Less than a month after his mother’s passing, Robbie posted in the Left Turn Lounge server that he would like to participate in the NASCAR Foundation and Martin Truex Jr. Foundation Honor a Cancer Hero program presented by AdventHealth.
Multiple members of the Left Turn Lounge’s moderation team decided to reach out to Brent at Circle B Diecast to see if it would be possible to put a message on the back of Benning’s truck at Knoxville.
Between them, not only did they come up with enough money to put the message on the bed of Benning’s truck, but also had excess funds, which they decided to put towards sponsoring Benning’s No. 6 in another event – which at the time of publishing has yet to be determined.
“Our Discord server had been planning to do something to add a bright spot to Robbie’s life from the moment he announced his mother’s diagnosis,” said Andrew W, a member of the Left Turn Lounge server. “Originally, that was for a collection of NASCAR memorabilia to be sent overseas, but the morning Robbie made us all aware of his mother’s passing, we decided we needed to act fast. Plans and phone calls were made, but nothing came to fruition so we decided to all pitch in and utilize the program that Circle B Diecast put forward with Norm Benning Racing to surprise Robbie with something he mentioned he wanted to do himself, have his mother’s memory ride on a NASCAR race vehicle.”
To make things even sweeter, Norm Benning – who had more than 130 submissions for names to be on his Chevrolet Silverado at Knoxville — decided to not just make a personalized video message for Robbie, but also send him a Norm Benning Racing care package.
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Saturday’s qualifying races will be crucial for Benning if he hopes to make his way into the Clean Harbors 150, but he’ll without a doubt have a large contingency of race fans cheering him on, both from the Left Turn Lounge and Dublin, Ireland, the home of the Power family.
