Good morning boys and girls. It’s about 9 a.m. here in Phoenix and brothaman still has a big smile on his face after that 3.78. I’m on my way to the track after grabbing a quick pecan waffle at the Waffle House.

The first run yesterday didn’t go to my liking. We dropped a hole at the hit, and I carried it too long. Having been out of the car for two months, you forget how fast a dragster accelerates, but we’re getting up to speed. We came back and got the Matco car in good shape. For the second pass, we were in the left lane at Firebird, which has been the tricky lane for people to get down. We put down a phenomenal run with a .836 60-foot time and 1,000-foot run of 3.82 at 301 mph. I shut off a little early at 3.6-seconds. That was just the fourth full pass on our new race car, so we have tons of potential with this Matco car. There were lots of smiles in the MAR pit after that 3.82 knowing we should have run about 3.81 at 315.

We got ready for the final run of the day, and I didn’t know that Brian and Mark were going to throw down the gauntlet. It was funny cause I had a bet with my homie and crew member Brad Mason. He does the blowers and ignition on our Matco dragster. Brad said we’d run 3.80, and I said we’d run in the 3.70s, and the winner had to buy dinner. We got up there and threw it down with a 3.781 at 316.45 mph. That was the second quickest 1,000-foot pass and our quickest run at 1,000 feet. We ran 3.803 at Richmond last fall. The energy was so high with our team after that run. For Brian and Mark and Cameron and Robb, who all came over from R2B2, and my boys who returned, John, Tony, Mike D., Brad and Red, I just want to thank you all for all the hard work this off-season. It was a crazy off-season for all of us, and that 3.78 was the perfect medicine. It’s so amazing how quickly this team has jelled.

I also want to echo Mark Oswald’s comments on NHRA.com and thank Lee Beard for everything. Lee has done so much for my racing career by helping me get started in Top Fuel, and he left us a great race car here at MAR. He’ll do a great job at DSR and help all the DSR cars run strong this season.

 

Real quick, here is a photo of my new buddy Kiah Blank. He’s seven and the son of Jason Blank a Lend America customer. They came out on Saturday to check us out during testing. Hopefully we’ll see Jason and Kiah back during the Arizona Nationals in February.

 

We’re off to make a few laps today and do a tire test for Goodyear. We love all the great support we get from Carolyn Ashbee and everyone at Goodyear. And with that, as always, a little love, peace and waffle grease, and I’m out like shout.

 

Antron