Hello again everybody. I’m getting ready to join my wife and kids in Louisiana for the Easter holiday and a few days of R&R before the Houston race next week. The weather has been just beautiful here in Indy and I’m kind of sad to go. It’s finally warming up and I’m loving these temps in the 70s even if my allergies are struggling.

So we went four wide last weekend at the spectacular zMax Dragway at Concord. If you’ve not been to zMax, you need to go. It’s one beautiful facility. It was another good weekend for our DSR Matco Tools team. We got to the final round of the Four-Wide Nationals on Monday and came up just a little short to our DSR teammate Cory Mac and Doug Kalitta. Anytime you can make a final round, it’s a good weekend. I have to give it up to Cory Mac, Todd and Phil and that FRAM team. They’ve been running great since testing in January. They have the car to beat right now, and they’re undefeated on Monday’s, so we all better watch out at the U.S. Nationals.

Charlotte was an interesting race with the Four-Wide to say the least. I know a lot of people had mixed feeling about it, but I didn’t have a problem. The staging process didn’t really throw me off. It brought our sport a lot of extra exposure and that’s something Bruton Smith is very good at. I’m not against the Four-Wide, but I’m ready to get back to traditional drag racing next weekend at Houston Raceway Park. And our Valvoline colors looked pretty darn good if you if you ask me.

Charlotte was cool because my dad, Al, spent the weekend with me. I had my uncle, Andre, and brother, Carlos, in Gainesville and my dad in Charlotte, so it’s been really nice to catch up with the fam from New Jersey. I don’t get back to the Garden State nearly enough, but I know one thing that should excite you all, my Grandma is fired up for Englishtown. She’s ready to get back to the race track. We’re lucky she won’t fly because we could see a lot more of her at the races. I also have to thank my Matco family for the great dinner at Texas Land & Cattle in Concord before the Charlotte race. District Manager Alan Fugate and five distributors, a few of whom I haven’t met, all met us for dinner and we had a really good time. We also had some NFL pals of mine in the house too. Adrian Murrell, the former running back, and his little brother, Marques, were there on Saturday, and Tyler Brayton, of the Panthers, stopped by on Sunday.

I’m fired up about getting to Houston. First, because our Matco Tools car is really running well. Brian Corradi is none too happy about being the bridesmaid with these runners-up. Brian is ready to win a race and he’s hungry. Our entire Matco crew is hungry for a win. I’ve raced for many years at Houston and it’s always a good, fast race track. We got our first Top Fuel win there two years with David Powers and Lee Beard and we qualified No. 1 at the Houston race last year, so we know we have what it takes to get it done. Second, I’ll have a lot of friends and family from Louisiana there with us, which always makes things interesting when those Cajuns are at the races.

I’ve got to give up some props to my boy Seth Angel at Houston Raceway Park. They’re really doing some cool stuff to the track in Baytown and I’m ready to check out the new Tower Club at HRP. Ya’ll may find me hanging out in the Tower Club to watch some Funny Car qualifying next weekend. Remember, if you don’t have your tickets to the O’Reilly Spring Nationals, log on to www.houstonraceway.com.

Last, we got a lot of great feedback from our Getting Down With Brown segment on ESPN2 last week from Charlotte. I’ve got to give it up to my boys Trevor and Matt with ESPN who make it so easy on me and make me look so darn good. LOL If this Top Fuel thing doesn’t work out, I may have a good fallback as pit report. Watch out Dave Rieff cause the brothaman may be coming after your job. Just kidding.

With that, it’s time for some love, peace and hair grease, and I’m out like shout.

God bless,