Hello everyone. Big Daddy’s back in the house. We just got back from a two-race swing in Brainerd and Reading. Brainerd was good to me in the past, but this year it threw a little monkey-wrench at us. Despite going out in the first round, we maintained our second-place ranking in the points, which is important for the Countdown to the Championship to be as close to Tony as possible. The highlights of the weekend were to hang out with Chris Strenge on his Matco tool truck in Andover, Minn. — he’s a new distributor and fairly new on the route — and making our annual pass through “the Zoo” on Saturday after qualifying at B.I.R. We saw the locals partying hard like it was Woodstock. They made me feel like I was Jimi Hendrix with all the fan support. That’s why we love going to Brainerd.

It’s always good to go to Reading and to see the family. I was really looking forward to hanging out with my dad and my uncle for the race weekend. They had me a little worried when my uncle had to leave the track and go to the emergency room. He just needed a little bed rest, and he’ll be fine. My grandma Lossie showed up in tip-top form. I swear every time I see her, it looks like she’s getting younger. The team and I are very thankful for her bringing chicken and ribs to the boys on race day. She always takes good care of us, and she’ll always slap you down when you need it. LOL It was a good weekend in Reading. It didn’t rain! We wish we could have gone to the final and won the race, but we had a rocker arm break when we started the car up. The car was back to being consistent, the way it needs to be when the Countdown starts. All-in-all, it was a good weekend, and we’re looking forward to the big race in Indianapolis. Before the race, I got to ride on the truck with my boy Treavor Teaman in PA. Treavor took me around to Landis & Shaffer garage, and it was cool to hang out with all the technicians there. They asked some very good technical questions that I was happy to answer, and I made out for a good time. I left a special gift for a competing tool distributor to know that I was there.

Being on the road for the last two weeks, I was up in the air on the plane, and I got bored, so I took some pictures of some unique cloud arrangements from the sky. Once I got home, Tuesday morning I put on my Matco Tools safari hat with my Oakley shades, and I jumped on the lawn mower, and I went to town on my two acres that was growing for two weeks. I came inside, answered some e-mails, paid some bills, and got caught up on all the real life daily stuff you can’t do when on the road. Then I spent some times with kids. Both Arianna and Anson just started school.

Now today, I made my way back to the shop to hang with my boys and get a little work caught up and focus all my efforts on the U.S. Nationals. The Indy race is the biggest of them all and like winning the championship. There will be more than 20 Top Fuel cars there, so we gotta be on our A game.

So with that, it’s time for me to leave on that note. It’s M-A-T-C-O and it’s time to GO. So love, peace, and hair grease, and I’m out for now.

Antron