NASCAR Garage Hokie's Mom Works on Campus

Grubb:

"We had a lot of phone calls and emails going around when Virginia Tech beat Duke and UNC this year in basketball and always with football. We've always had a pretty strong following in the garage. It's amazing how many Hokies are actually in the garage when you get to know them.

"There's a lot of people in the garage that went to Tech one year before I did or one year after that I never knew because it's such a big campus and there's so many people there. But it's a tight-knit community once you find a fellow Hokie and you have a lot to talk about because everybody enjoys their experience that they have at Virginia Tech and it's something that they cherish and would love to go back and relive."

Yesterday's experiences won't be ones that any VT alum will want to relive:

"I remember having classes in Norris Hall, probably in some of the same classrooms where those people were killed. It's just amazing. I can't believe what those families and those people that were actually in those classrooms, that survived, what they are going through having to relive it."

But for Grubb, yesterday wasn't a trip down memory lane, it was more about the immediate situation at hand--his mom works on campus as an academic advisor. He was on his way to the Hendrick Motorsports shop yesterday when first learned the news:

"It was very disturbing. I talked to mom several times yesterday. Her office building is actually next door to the dorm where the first shooting occurred. She was in lockdown when I called to talk to her after I heard the news. She was still pretty upset then. It was just unbelievable. Right after that, is when all the news started coming out about what actually happened. It just got worse as the day went along."

Grubb says it won't be easy, but that the tightness of the community will help it to heal:

"I don't know how anyone can say they'll just get past this because it's such a huge tragedy. You'll never be able to get past this but because it is a tight knit community - basically Virginia Tech is the town of Blacksburg and the entire town revolves around that university so it will be a little easier to pull together to mourn and grieve the loss and help out the families there in need but it's still not going to make it easy.

"You have the feel of the people you know. It's a small town. It's so close knit where everyone feels like neighbors and friends it will make it a little easier to find someone to talk to and someone to lean on as you need it."