Last Friday was an early wake-up call. Like the Gap Band sang, "Early In The Morning." PR Ted swung by the house and picked me up at 6:30 a.m. I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of my crazy daughter’s alarm clock that told me, “Rise and shine sleepy head. Wake up! Wake up!” This clock has like five or six different sayings. It’s crazy.

Me and my homie Ted -- oops, my homie Ted and I; I have to use proper English -- cruised to Chicago in our Toyota Tundra. I never realized how nice these Tundras drive. I can’t wait for mine to show up at the shop real soon. We got to New Lenox, Ill., a little after 8 a.m. and met up with local Matco Tools District Manager Glenn Vanderwall. Glen played our tour guide for the day. It was incredible to have four Matco distributors in such close vicinity, and they’re all near the top in sales nationwide.

The first distributor we met was my boy, Tall Chuck Deutsch. Tall Chuck who always gets the bucks! I could see how he was the No. 1 distributor in the country his first year with Matco. His personality is, bar none, very upbeat and he’s there every step of the way for his customers.

Our second visit was with Tony Mores. Tony is a newer distributor who is quickly catching on to the tool business. While driving with Tony, he never realized how many of his customers were in tune with NHRA drag racing. It was incredible how many of his customers recognized me as soon as we walked into the shops. Tony’s exact words were, “Wow!” I think we made an instant NHRA fan with Tony. I look forward to seeing him again at the Joliet race.

Our third ride was with Jeff Strong, who is in his sophomore year as a Matco distributor. There’s no sophomore slump for Jeff as he made the top 50. Jeff just got a brand new tool truck and it was pimped out. One of Jeff’s customers, by surprise, was a huge Brittney Spears fan. He had an entire wall of his shop covered with Brittney. Man, I knew she looked good, but I never knew she looked hot like that.

Our fourth and final ride was with John Wolfe, who is the No. 1 distributor for the second straight year. I’m gonna start calling John: HMMIC or Head Matco Man In Charge. You can tell John’s personality really helps his business. I’m looking forward to partying with John in that suite at Expo next week.

Remember, these guys don’t just sell tools, but also passes to our Iron Eagle Club hospitality at the races, which gets you side-by-side with Hot Rod and myself, along with our entire team. You can find a Matco distributor in your area at www.matcotools.com.

Over the weekend, I went to the motorcycle expo at the Convention Center in Indy. I met up with a lot of my old friends and it was cool just to browse and look around at the show. I looked around and stopped and hung out at the Suzuki accessories booth and MSD and VP booths.

I fly out to Phoenix tomorrow and cannot wait to get back into the cockpit of the Matco Tools dragster and some warm weather. It was like 9 degrees here in Indy this morning.

Until next time, love, peace and hair grease. I’m out like shout.