Here I go again, getting way behind on the blog deal. At least I have a good excuse this time: I’m lazy. Also, with living in the RV on the road, dealing with a laptop without wireless internet, and totally dependant on Wi-Fi hotspots to communicate with the world, all of the stuff that’s happened since the last blog is still just in my head.

Fortunately, I still remember most of it, and almost all of it is great. So, understanding that it will take several entries (or one humungous blog [that would be a Superblog times two]) to catch up, let’s just start with all that took place through Charlotte, and I will be kind of brief (whatever that means).

Heading from Indy to Georgia took us right through Nashville, which all of you geographic experts will recall is a State Capitol. We dig State Capitols, but Tennessee obviously didn’t get word that we were coming through on Sunday, so we had to settle for lapping the place twice and shooting a couple of pictures. We still will have to re-cover there and Boise, as construction and off-day closures don’t count as official “we’ve been there’s”.

Valdosta: I didn’t need to go. Leah drove just fine and completed her licensing runs in the Rockstar car, and testing really wasn’t an option unless the NHRA Safety Safari could have prepped the track in their style. That’s not a knock on the track; it just is a different deal with different equipment.

Jenna, Jason and I pulled in to a very warm and humid track at 4 a.m. (typical), and the generator wouldn’t stay running, so we left the windows open for air. It was hot, humid (yeah, I said it already, but it was really nasty), and at 8 a.m. sharp the music started coming from the track PA system. Much as I love classic rock, I wanted to throw a classic rock at the speakers.

Aside from watching Leah, all I did was service our generator and try to fry the electrical in the entertainment system. The two actually aren’t related. The generator works just fine, I just need to learn to check the track’s electrical plug-ins carefully before trying to use shore power. Luckily it just took a trip down the road, $17 for a new surge protector, and a few minutes of sweat to remedy that minor miscalculation. Having gone all that way without making a run down the track, I decided to take a shot in the Beaver (does that sound funny?) just to see how she ran. Leah was a bit quicker.

We now had another long drive ahead of us, as I had to be in Charlotte well before the race for several events. We arrived at the track campground at … any guesses? 5 a.m. would be correct!

Nice, I had to park in the lot and wait until 9 a.m. to check in, get parked, level, plug in, get all the slides out, shower and shave, and drive 82 miles. I was doing a four-stop TV media deal for the race, and my escort/expert/media guru was Rob Goodman. Rob was the Winston dude back in the day, and he made sure all of our time was spent efficiently. We drove over to Duke University for the first interview, and by the time I was back at the campsite at the end of the day I had travelled well over 300 miles.

The next day downtown Charlotte hosted the Countdown press conference, with all 40 pro drivers in attendance (though I did count about five empty seats). Doug Herbert fired up his Top Fueler and even whacked the throttle to give everyone within 20 miles of downtown a reason to come to the race.

Later that day racers were invited to a “run what you brung” event at the track. Let history show that Michael Waltrip was the first person to hit the wall at zMax Raceway, but his stock car held up remarkably well. Jeggy even ran a 10.34 with it later that evening.

I took half a dozen laps down the track myself, all in the low-eight-second range, and all with a passenger on board. Frank Hawley had the school’s two-seater dragster on hand to take several folks and VIPs for the ride of their lives, and I got to do the piloting. Sean and Jimmy brought the car up from Gainesville. They both work for Frank in Florida, and Jimmy won the track championship in his own car this year. He’s a real talented guy, and quite a chassis man. He’s still learning the rest of the parts of the car, though. Frank asked him to point to the scoop in this photo, so you can see he’s making tremendous progress.

Thursday Herbert hosted his BRAKES charity dinner, and we attended with the Comstock’s. Jason was kept occupied by his best buddies, Dominic and Giovanni Scelzi. I can’t wait for Jason to be old enough that we can drop him with the Scelzi boys and pray to God they stay out of trouble.

I don’t know what the final dollar figure was, but I know the BRAKES event was an overwhelming success. I bought a Cory Mac helmet, and Rodger Comstock bought a ’64 Cadillac convertible. I think he spent a bit more than I, but I told him he could wear the helmet whenever he has the top down if it makes him feel safer. He just needs to be careful, because nobody’s devaluing my Cory Mac centerpiece!

The rest of the weekend went pretty well! Bruce Stansel, who served in New Mexico with me and eventually retired from the Air Force, showed up. I haven’t seen him since I burnt rubber leaving Cannon AFB back in February 1988, so it was quite a treat. He’s the one with the bushy face, Jason’s got the curly hair and monkey on his back, and I’m the third dude in the pic.

Not much else to report. Oh yeah, we won the race! We had a great racecar all weekend; we just didn’t run real fast Friday night so we wound up in the bottom half of the field … again. But, we were the fastest car both runs Saturday, and one of the quickest each round on Sunday. It was hot, humid, nasty, and I loved it. Getting up on that stage with Alan Reinhart at the end of the day means everything turned out lovely (can I use “lovely” and “Alan Reinhart” in the same sentence?).

Jason just loves the way the driver medallions taste, and I’d love to get him a couple more before the year is out. He also is getting smarter about these winner’s circle shots. We typically will take photos in 8-10 different hats to represent all of our sponsors, but Jason decided just to stack all of his for one special picture. More power to him!

One of the other perks about winning a race is getting to hang out with the Rockstar girls.

Wait … wait …

I think you’re misunderstanding what I’m trying to say: I am a happily married man, and Jenna will always be my Rockstar girl, but Jason is single, young, and charming, so I wasn’t going to stop him from getting a phone number. Or two. Or all three! Hey, at least his butt wasn’t hanging out, like in previous blogs!

The other shots are of the guys who got us into contention for the championship. The Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services crew is the best in Funny Car, and they didn’t seem too shy when the Rockstar gals came over for a picture. If you’re wondering why the ground all around the front of the car is wet, that would be PowerAde. Lots of PowerAde. All of it was poured over Tommy Delago, Johnny West, and yours truly by the “gentlemen” hiding behind the car. I suppose if that’s the worst thing that happens for winning a race that we could tolerate an extra dry-cleaning or two during the rest of the season.

Stay tuned!