Hey everyone. I got to Brainerd on Thursday afternoon and met up with Whit’s crew and went to dinner with those guys. It was nice to spend some time with them because most of them were on my crew last season and even in 2005.



Friday was a bad and good day. I made a mistake on our first qualifying run and lifted. The car was slipping the clutch because it was hot out and it felt funny to me, so I lifted by mistake. It was slipping the clutch and felt strange and I made a mistake and felt really bad for my guys. I made sure to apologize to my team after the run. We went up there in the second session and qualified No. 1 and the car ran great. I was riding back in the Sequoia and the stands were packed after the run and I was amazed at all the fans that were cheering for us. It gave me goose bumps. We did get booed by two fans wearing Tony Schumacher shirts, but the majority of the fans cheered us on. You can’t please them all I guess.



Alan Reinhart got ahold of me after the run and said he wanted to take me to the Zoo since I was the fastest man on the property as he put it. We spent more than an hour out there and had a lot of fun. That was my maiden voyage to the Zoo. I stick to my schedule, so we went back to the hotel pretty early because I need my beauty sleep.



We were trying some new stuff Saturday because we’re in for the Countdown. A lot of people ask why we’re testing, but we learned some stuff and ended up in the No. 7 spot. I did my normal ritual and jammed out of the track to beat the crowd after our second run and had dinner with Amy Lammers of Butler CAT and her husband Matt. During dinner, I got a call from PR Ted and he informed me I needed to come to the Zoo because a lot of drivers were there and David Powers was there and the fans were asking about me, so I took the Lammers with me. I was really glad I went because it put me in touch with the fans. I got to meet a lot of people and take pictures and sign autographs and I’m glad that I went out there Saturday night. I’ll make sure I go out to the Zoo every year. It’s definitely a fun time.



There isn’t much to say about Sunday. The highlight of the day was to spend some time with my mom. My dad was racing Super Gas and Super Comp at BIR. His Sunday lasted as long as mine so we had a lot of time to spend with each other.



I slept in at Brainerd Monday and spent most of the day at the airport. NWA had delays in Minneapolis and I just barely made my flight from Brainerd. I didn’t get into Philly into 12:30 a.m. and drove 90 minutes to our hotel in Wyomissing. I did nothing on Tuesday. I didn’t feel well, so I just laid around to get ready for Wednesday, our big day this week.



Ransome CAT is sponsoring us for the weekend and we had our car on display at the dealership in Bensalem, Pa. It was great because they gave us a tour of the dealer and I got to drive an articulated dump truck and use an excavator. That was awesome. If this driving stuff doesn’t work out, then maybe I can operate CAT equipment. Hopefully they’ll let me drive a bulldozer some day. That would be really cool.



It’s Friday after in Reading and Rob Flynn just said it’s time to warm the car, so I’ll close with that. I’ll talk to everybody next week. Have a great weekend.