Sorry it’s taken nearly two weeks for me to update the blog. I haven’t had much to say with Eric’s passing. It really took the wind out of all of us. I haven’t been the same.

Despite the tragedy, I was excited to get to Houston because it was a big race for us. Getting to the track helped take your mind off it it. We had the support of Caterpillar and Mustang Cat. PR Ted and I went to dinner with two of the corporate folks from Caterpillar on Thursday night. We ate at the Kemah Boardwalk, which is a popular place in the area. You never know what to expect going to meet with a new sponsor, but we hit it off well. They were younger and we all just clicked. That relieved a lot of stress because I knew they would be easy to work with.

Being David’s home race, there was extra pressure on us and you want to do well for them. I got to go to David Powers Homes for the first time. It was nice to thank everyone for the support. Working for David, they watch us on ESPN2 and follow the team. It was a meaningful visit.

The weather was suspect for the weekend, but our first qualifying run was awesome. We blew through the clutch on the night run, but Whit got the pole and we were third. That was cool. We hoped to step up to No. 1 again on Saturday, but we woke up and it was pouring rain. It was frustrating because we couldn’t do what we needed to do for the CAT folks and eventually the day was canceled. We thought Sunday would be ok, but we got more rain. I felt bad for the fans because they endured the rain and had to deal with the mud pit that was Houston Raceway Park. That place really needs some paving.

The sun finally started to peek through and Whit and I were on separate sides of the bracket. We went up there and the track was green and we smoked the tires. We know we have a 4.40 car, but we just missed it. I hadn’t lost in the first round since last August at Memphis and we were shut off at the line because of a leak. The last time we lost in the first round in competition was at Denver last July. That’s not a bad run of going rounds. We were fortunate that a few other cars went out early. My goal was to leave Houston with the points lead and we did that. We didn’t earn it, but we got lucky and we’ll take it. I really wanted to be the points leader going into my home race at Vegas.

I got to see my buddy Stevie Ray at the race this past weekend. Stevie used to wrestle on the WCW circuit years ago. I met him through Lee Beard. He’s a monster of a man. We took a few pictures together on Sunday afternoon.



My team went to dinner with the CAT folks at Chili’s on Sunday night. We had a really good time. Other than PR Ted getting one of our Tundras stuck in the muddy parking lot, it wasn’t all that bad. I left early Monday morning to Rogers, Ark. It’s always good to go home. I’ve got a busy week in Arkansas. I’ll tell you about it in the next blog. One thing I will say is that I’ll be at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change in Rogers from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday evening. If you’re an NHRA fan in the area, come say hello and get an oil change. I’ll update in a few days.