Happy New Year. I’m ready to go racing, how about you? It’s been a boring off season for, but the holidays were good. The highlight of my winter vacation was getting to go home to Arkansas for Christmas.

I sold a vehicle to a friend of mine in Arkansas, so I drove from Las Vegas to Arkansas, all 1,280 miles. It was a nice, long trip. It’s been since my Sportsman days since I’ve driven that long. It was a harder driver than I thought it would be. My knee would stiffen up, so I had to stop a lot and stretch up. I had to make sure to keep up my knee rehab for PT Dave, so as soon as I got to Rogers, Ark., I went straight to the gym before even going home. I want to get my knee back to 100-percent and be healthy for 24 races this season.

It was really nice to be home. I got home on Dec. 22 and hadn’t done much shopping, so I waited to the last minute like always. It was crazy busy and jampacked at the mall, but we got it done. It was just nice to spend a lot of time with my parents and Tony and his fiancé were there and my older brother Steve. On Christmas Eve, a bunch of family came over and we had our traditional Texas Hold ‘Em poker game. I’m not a card player at all, but it ended up with my dad, Tony, and me in the final three. My dad, Bob, won the Fuller family poker tourney. It also was cool to see my nephews. It’s kind of funny because my nephews are all over six feet tall and they’re not even 20 years old. I guess the short genes in the Fuller family skipped a generation.

Christmas was awesome. It was one of the best ever for me. My mom is in good health and good spirits. Growing up, Christmas is about presents, but as you get older it isn’t about that. It’s about giving and being with the family and that made it nice this year. I didn’t need a gift to have a good Christmas. Just to have my family healthy and spend time with them was awesome.

Two days after Christmas on Dec. 27, my longtime buddy Chad Campbell -- we’ve known each other since we were little kids; Chad runs me ragged when I’m home in Rogers – took me to see the mayor of Rogers. I didn’t know I was going to see the mayor, so I was dressed real casual in jeans. It was a big surprise and Mayer Womack gave me the Rogers Award of Excellence, which is basically the key to the city. That’s a great honor. You can never imagine earning that growing up. It’s was an awesome experience. They had me speak to all the city employees and I talked about what an honor it is to represent Rogers. I might live in Vegas, but I’m an Arkansas boy.

I got home on Dec. 30 and took it easy. Vegas is a crazy city all the time, but it’s really crazy at New Year’s. I didn’t want to deal with crowds with my knee healing, so for the first time in a long time I just stayed home and watched TV on New Year’s Eve. I watched that motorcycle guy make that jump on ESPN. It was a cool event. I had tickets to go, but it was really cold and I didn’t want to go out in 30-degree temps. The best seat was on my couch at home.

My schedule is about to heat up. I have some CAT meetings in Indy early next week. We are going to have a show car program this year, so I have to go to Missouri for a show car appearance at Linn State Tech College next Thursday and Friday. I’m excited about the new show car. Indy was really cold this week, but it’s warming up from what I hear.

That’s all for now. Take care.

Hot Rod