The last two weeks were very eventful, and we had a lot of fun. We started off at Vegas on March 8 at Caesar’s Palace at Matco Tools Expo ’09. We got in bright and early on Sunday morning like at 9 a.m., and needless to say, we couldn’t get into our rooms until later that afternoon, so we made the best of it and sat by the pool and took our shirts off and took in some of the sun rays for the first time in ’09. We also walked around the Expo show and watched all the vendors finish setting up for the big show on Monday and Tuesday. We got in our rooms and got dolled up for the Matco National Business Conference, which was an unbelievable show. It was such an amazing feeling when they asked us on stage along with Mike Ashley. It was incredible. For all six years I’ve been going to the Expo, I’ve never head an applause like that. The support from our entire Matco family was very humbling and means so much to all of us here at MAR. Thanks Matco!

Expo is always a good time because we get to interact with so many distributors and do things that don’t get to do at the race track, like hang out, eat dinner, and just talk. I’m really, really excited about next year’s Expo, which is in Cancun, Mexico. So, if any of you all want to jump on the train and become a Matco Tools distributor, now’s the time. Your first tool Expo will be in Cancun. You can join that Matco Tools team by just calling 888-MY-MATCO.

After the Expo was all done, we did a real cool deal on Tuesday night. I had never been to a Vegas show before, and we went to see Cher at the Coliseum thanks to our good buddy Dave Stoltz. She’s a great entertainer. She was very fun on stage with her awesome stage presence. Baby girl can still sing her tail off, and she likes to change outfits. I was very impressed, and I tell my wife every day, if she looks like Cher when she’s 70, she ain’t got nothing to worry about. LOL And brothaman did alright on the blackjack tables, too. I took the C out of Caesar’s. After Expo was all over, all the long nights took a toll on my body. We also had an awesome view from our room, and here you can see the water show at Bellagio from the Brown room at Caesar’s.

We got home at like 9 p.m. on Wednesday night. My wife stayed up late again, this time washing clothes, and we were up bright and early on Thursday morning to catch a flight to Florida. When we got to Jacksonville, we hit up some TV stations to help promote the Gatornationals and made it just in time for our 7 p.m. dinner with Darryl and Shelly and Chip of Matco. We couldn’t miss the restaurant because they had my name on the big board. Here’s a picture of the sign with me and Shelly Pritchett after dinner.

The Gainesville race was beautiful. The weather was sunny and great. Friday morning, I woke up early and went to the YES Program. There were more than 2,500 kids that we got to speak to and motivate. It’s great that Matco is getting involved in Votech programs, and we’re going to do seven school visits with the race car this year. We’re bringing big blue to you tech students. Qualifying went pretty well even though it was hot out. We qualified No. 7 with a 3.94 on Saturday. We had some pretty cool stuff going on with a lot of our sponsors like Toyota and Goodridge. It’s always good to see my boys Andre, Don, and Ed from Toyota. It was like family reunion too because my uncle Andre was there and Angelle and Seth were there too to hang out with us. Sunday was my uncle Andre’s birthday. It’s nice to win, but you can’t take them all home. We also did NHRA Race Day on Sunday morning with Mike Dunn and Dave Rieff and my good friend and old crew chief Steve Tartaglia. It was good to talk about Top Fuel and the bikes. It was a very busy race because I know I’m leaving out about half the stuff we did during the week. That’s probably why I ended up with a sinus infection. I’m getting well, and we’re getting rested and healthy for Houston, which is going to be another big and busy race.

I want to thank all the fans for our support and all the e-mails. And I want to let all the fans know they can get souvenirs at the NitroMall at the track or online at www.NitroMall.com or www.antronbrown.com. And with that it’s time for a little Love, Peace and Hair Grease, and I’m out like shout. And we’ll catch you on the flip side at Houston Raceway Park.

Antron