Being a hometown event, the Las Vegas race always makes for a hectic week.



It started on Sunday, April 8, which was Easter, when I continued my tradition of going in-studio with Claudine Grant of FOX 5 in Las Vegas. We like to pump up the race and try and get people excited about the weekend at The Strip at LVMS.



I had a few radio interviews on Monday. They were taped and run multiple times in California and Nevada. We did a lot of press work last week. I had been gone a lot, so I spent the day getting caught up on all the things I missed when I was gone. I had to get ahead of the game since I was busy with the race week. I had a low-key day on Tuesday. I got my hair cut, worked out, and pretty much just laid low. I needed some rest for Wednesday.



Wednesday morning, I met Jeff Motley from Las Vegas Motor Speedway and we were in-studio with four different radio stations. That’s always fun to do. I’m getting used to doing that and having a good time with it. It’s cool to get so much airtime and PR before an event. Being the points leader heading into our home race, we had a lot to talk about. Then I met PR Ted for the NHRA press conference. The NHRA had the media luncheon at Ruth’s Chris and we talked with Jeff Wolf of the Review-Journal and all the local TV stations. A lot of people were asking about our sponsor situation and I told them we have a lot of good things in the works. Things are looking positive for our team. Then, we went in-studio with Kevin West of the local NBC affiliate. Kevin is a really cool guy. We did a long sit-down interview. That night, I had dinner with the Jefferys, my longtime sponsors from Western Stabilization. We went to the seafood buffet at the Rio. It’s a great buffet. I highly recommend it.



I got up early Thursday morning and went to Area 108, the alternative rock station in Vegas, and did an interview with Gonzo Greg. After that, I went to the track and got my stuff in order and visited with the guys. I handed out some fliers to all the sportsmen racers to promote our autograph session at the Silverton Hotel & Casino. Our team had a really nice time staying at the Silverton. It’s a nice place. I went home to freshen up for our Silverton appearance. We had a 90-minute signing. It was nice to see the fans and have both of our race teams support us. It was nice and laid back. We got to really chat with the fans. That was cool. Then it was off to the New York, New York for another autograph session. We got there right about 7 p.m. and the line was crazy. We signed for about two hours and the people just kept coming. That’s awesome to see that kind of support. I went home to get some rest because we finally got to race on Friday.



I was really excited Friday morning. It was my home track, so I had a lot of ticket requests. I had PR Ted help me with getting all the tickets organized. I felt the conditions for the weekend were good for our team and our tune-up. We went out there and were seventh quick after the first session. We wanted to make a good baseline run. It was a real conservative run. We came back that night and ran 4.498. That put us third. We were really happy with that because we knew it was going to warm up on Saturday.



On Saturday things played out how we thought. We were going for it on the first pass, but we smoked the tires. We wanted to see what the track would hold. We were looking for a mid-4.50 on the last run and ran 4.53. We tried a new setup and it worked well. Whit Bazemore and the Matco team ran 4.498 also, so that was big for the team. We were confident heading into Sunday with our cars qualified third and fourth.

Usually after our final qualifying run, I head back to the hotel and go to bed early, but things were different this time. We had a promotion with the Silverton and I was a guest of the Gin Blossoms. A group of my close friends met us and a lot of the team members showed up. My little brother Tony showed up too. It was awesome. The Silverton really took care of us. What was really cool was seeing my picture on the big marquee board out in front of the hotel. I never expected that. That was awesome!

After the concert we went to a bar in the hotel to sign autographs. We had a lot of fans show up. I felt like the promotion was a big success.

I was in bed by 11:30 p.m. so I still got a good night’s rest. I woke up about 5 a.m. and was really anxious for the race. I got to the track around 6:30, which is earlier than I wanted to. I needed to get my fuel done and get organized because I had to do NHRA Raceday with Dave Rieff and Mike Dunn. That was really cool to be on live and see all the fans.



I thought it was our day. We had a good bracket. We had the match-up of the day with Larry Dixon in the second round. I was nervous about that race. When we got by them I thought it was our race, but we fell to Bob Vandergriff in the semis. I was bummed we lost. I was happy for him because we’re good buddies, but you never want to lose. I want to win at Las Vegas so much. I want to win that race more than Indy.

Overall, I can’t complain. We increased the points lead. We feel good about things. Sunday night, our team went to dinner at Buca Di Beppo. We had a good time. I was glad the weekend was over because I needed some rest.



People have been asking about my cats and new sunglasses, so I’ll blog on those two subjects next time.