St. Louis was a very special moment in my racing career. I don’t think there has ever been a moment like what I experienced during the unveiling of the Darrell Russell tribute car on Friday. The emotions were so intense with expectation and excitement yet very overwhelming with sadness over the loss of my buddy four years ago at this very race. I can’t really explain all that I felt, but to say the least, I was honored to pay tribute to Darrell. He represented everything I ever wanted to achieve in the world of racing and even as a human being. I am certain I can reach the mark with the racing side someday, but as a person I am not certain I can ever measure up to a guy like Darrell.

During the unveiling, I had the privilege of presenting the Russell family their crew uniforms. It was our way of adding them to our “racing family,” if you will. It was a very special moment. Following the unveiling, we pushed the car back in line for round one of qualifying. As I walked back to the staging lanes, tears were running down my face. I have never suited up and climbed in a car with such intense emotion. As soon as the car fired up though, it was “showtime” and my world became more familiar and bearable and that’s definitely just what the doctor ordered. No pun intended.

On a lighter note, it was a ton of fun to get to go racing with a few of my racing buddies from the alcohol dragster ranks, one of them obviously being Chris Russell and then my friend, Michael Taliaferro, whose brother Mark used to race against Darrell and I. By the way, Mark Scheierman, my marketing guru, was also involved in those days. So it was like old times, agitating one another, having a few beverages and telling stories about the good ol’ days. Like we are that old, right? I don’t think so. It was awesome to have Burnell and Gwen, Darrell’s parents, right along side with us guys throughout the weekend. It was like a family reunion to some degree. After all, the racing brotherhood is family.

Race day obviously produced some joyous moments when we defeated J R Todd in round one. At that moment, I felt I had conquered the world due to the fact I hadn’t had a round win since Seattle 2006. It felt good to get back to winning and I was hungry for 3 more wins to honor Darrell and his family with a win but as we all know, it wasn’t meant to be. We were plagued with tire smoke again in round two against Schumacher and that brought my day to a screeching halt. I was devastated in that the perfect plan I had envisioned, was over and there would be no dedication of the trophy to the Russell family. I wanted that win more than any race ever in my life. The good news is that we as a team, did win Best Appearing Crew and we were able to dedicate that trophy to Mrs. Russell. It was a nice moment to help celebrate the life of my buddy. Meanwhile, we will be packing our bags and heading to Bristol, looking for that first win of 2008.

The overwhelming success of the tribute was flanked by a new car wrap, fire suit, helmet, crew shirts and hero cards. I would like to say thank you to the following companies who made this possible. First and foremost, Roy Warren and Dan Pikarsky at Vis Viva Living Force Energy and Dexter Tuttle at Tuttle Motorsports for allowing us to do this. Then of course my marketing buddy, Mark Scheierman at Fastfwdmedia.com for all the graphic design preparation of the tribute, John Schneider at Impact Racing for the suit and helmet; Lisa at Vicci for the crew shirts, Michael Gasparelli at Co-Color for the hero cards, the guys at Wrap It Up vinyl wraps, and my personal friend from Odessa, Texas, Brandon Mendoza for the custom paint on the helmet.

There’s an interesting story behind Brandon and the helmet. You see, in 2003 Brandon attended the Dallas race and was fortunate enough to win the opportunity to ride in the POWERade vehicle to the top end to see the drivers get out of their cars following a run. Brandon met a few drivers but one in particular stood out. You guessed it…. Darrell Russell. Brandon told me he got to BS with Darrell and thought he was really cool and a genuinely nice guy. Sound familiar? I believe so. I know without a doubt this moment Brandon shared with me was very typical in the life of Darrell Russell. It’s just who he was and these memories shared, will always remain.

As far as the Russell family, I can tell you first hand, they had a great time visiting with fans and friends throughout the weekend. This weekend was all about celebrating Darrell’s life and I believe Darrell was proud of the whole deal. I can’t thank everyone enough for being part of this weekend. Most importantly, I want to thank God for allowing me to have the opportunity to know Darrell and to call him a personal friend. While we may have been robbed of our buddy for now, his memories live forever and I am certain I will see him again some day. And yes, you can bet on it …There is nitro in heaven.

In closing, I want to remind everyone to go to eBay and bid on the Darrell Russell Tribute helmet and fire suit this week. Next week we will have the DR Tribute crew shirts on eBay up for auction as well. All proceeds will benefit Racers For Christ and DRAW.