It’s been a long time away from the blog, so let me get you back into the groove of things. We’ll go back before the St. Louis race. The Thursday morning before the race, I hopped on the Matco Tools truck with James Adkison, who is new to the tool game. He’s only been on the route a few months. He had one of the coolest stops I’ve seen this year. We got to stop at a custom street rod shop called Old Dogs north of St. Louis. Of course, all the guys that worked at the shop were NHRA Drag Racing fans. The shop had some pretty cool sheet metal racing signs that I had to scoop up for my son Anson’s room. The best sign of all said, “Life’s a Drag.” That one will go up in my garage when it gets finished. That’s the way I like to live, one straightaway at a time! I just want to thank James for taking me on a cool ride around St. Louis. It was also nice to see many of his customers support us at the race track by getting their tickets and hospitality passes to our Iron Eagle Club, which you too can do by hooking up with your local Matco Tools distributor. James had never been to an NHRA race, so we hooked him up with some tickets to check us out on Saturday. Here’s a picture of James and his two boys next to the Matco Tools dragster.

The St. Louis race was another good outing for the Matco Tools team. We qualified in the top five once again and set top speed of the meet for the second straight race. We went out in the second round due to a race day gremlin that got us. What made it a great weekend was that our teammate, Hot Rod and the Caterpillar team, got it done, making it to a fourth straight final round and third win in four races for our DPM team. That is a great accomplishment for our team and shows what a great group of people David Powers, Tim Buckley, Lee Beard, and Rob Flynn have assembled. The next night after Hot Rod’s big win, back in Brownsburg, Ind., we had a team celebration at Boulder Creek with both teams and their families to celebrate our run of success. The grub was good like that. I had me a filet with barbeque bacon-wrapped shrimp.

We had an off weekend in between St. Louis and Bristol. That Friday I went out to IMS with Lee to check out the IRL guys getting ready for pole day. We checked out Bill Simpson from Impact! Racing; we have to thank Wild Bill for the garage passes. While we were walking around the garages and pit row, we saw the likes of Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi, the Andretti Green guys, and lots of race fans. It was incredible to walk up and down and see all that racing history. To be recognized by all the fans with so many racing legends there yelling “Antron” was a complete shock to me. I couldn’t believe how many fans and people at the track were asking about the transition from PSM to TF and congratulating Lee and me on our Matco team’s success. The media also recognized us, and they took us into the media room in the tower. Lee and I spent an hour in the press room, and that was awesome to get that exposure for NHRA POWERade Drag Racing. I think next year in May, I might have to get in one of those open wheel cars and give it a whirl. We’ll show them circle track guys and gals what love, peace, and hair grease is all about.

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, I hope that all you guys didn’t forget your moms. We had a meal at the house, and it was cool to have my momma and my wife to celebrate the wonderful day with them. I just want to thank both of them for putting up with me, my momma for the 32 years of my life and my wife for the 10 years of her knowing me. I love both of you dearly with all of my heart.

I flew out to Bristol on Wednesday. The team threw a curveball at me and flew me into Knoxville and not Tri-Cities, so I had to drive another 90 miles to get to Bristol. It was good to see all the beautiful green Tennessee countryside. I didn’t let it get to me. I’m too blessed to be stressed. On Thursday, I got to go out on the tool trucks with two Matco distributors that were new to the Bristol area. Matco is making a strong comeback in the area, so it’s nice to go out and meet all the new customers they built up in the last 10 months. I spent the morning with Rick Page and the afternoon with Al Morin. Rick is an old northeastern guy like myself. He gave away tickets to the race to his customers through tool promotions. Rick came out to the track, and here is a photo of him sporting a cool Antron Brown T-shirt, which you can buy from the Nitro Mall.

In the afternoon, I rode with Al. We stopped at one of his dealerships that was cooking burgers and hot dogs outside, which was cool to have some grub on the ride waiting for us. It was too bad that I had eaten at Bob Evans for lunch before I got there. Just in the 10 months that Matco has been in the Tri-Cities area, it won’t be long before they’re the No. 1 tool franchise in that district also. While we passed another company’s tool truck, they gave us a special hand signal to let us know the Matco boys are getting the job done.

The Bristol race wasn’t the best for our team. We qualified well again with the Matco car, running 330 mph on Friday night. We lost in the second round, and my hats off to Hillary Will and the Kalitta team for doing a great job. We just got beat by .015-second, and that’s how the cookie crumbles in drag racing. This next week back at the shop, we’re putting our heads down to work harder to get ready for Topeka. Topeka is another new track for me. I had raced a Bristol during the Winston Showdown years back, but I’ve never even been to Heartland Park. I’m looking forward to a new track and a new challenge.

As I sit here at the Chicago Midway Airport, Ted and myself are going on a two-day tour to Denver to do some media promotions for the Mile-High Nationals in July. We’re gonna hang with our boy Zak from the NHRA media department. This is one of the parts of switching from PSM to Top Fuel that I definitely have to get more endurance for. We’re constantly on the go, and it’s rough and tough at times being away from the family. The summer months are coming, and I’m looking forward to being at all the races with my wife and kids behind me 110-percent as we get close to the Countdown to 1 in Charlotte.

Thanks for being patient. I’m sorry that I haven’t written a blog in a little while. Thanks for all your continued support. With that said, love, peace, and I’m ready to go burn up some Kansas grease. And I’m out!