I was on top of the blog, but these last two weeks have been really busy. We finally have some time to sit down and do a blog. There’s not much to talk about from the Dallas race, but we did have the great support from HOLT CAT again on the Caterpillar car. HOLT is an awesome supporter of our NHRA racing program. On Thursday before the race, I did a meet-and-greet at the dealership in Irving, Texas. Here is a picture of Juan Cruz, the son of a HOLT employee. Juan Cruz a big fan and he asked if I’d take his Hot Wheels for a ride in the CAT dragster, so I did during Friday’s first qualifying run at Dallas. I put it in my firesuit and we ran 3.93. This photo is of my parents, Bob and Cathy, and my brother, Tony, at Dallas.

After the race, I stayed on the road and had the opportunity to go to HOLT’s headquarters in San Antonio. It was HOLT’s 75^th anniversary celebration. Aline Rice, Mike Meeks and Howard Hicks brought me in to meet with their customers and employees. I got to San Antonio on Tuesday night and we had a dinner with many executives and dignitaries. Spurs coach Greg Popovich was there and our good friend Jim Parker from Caterpillar corporate in Peoria also was there. I hadn’t met Peter Holt before – Peter is the dealer principle of HOLT CAT and the owner of the Spurs – and the first thing he said was, “Hot Rod, better than NASCAR.” I was surprised he knew who I was and then to have him support our sport is great. He was impressed by the number of technician leads that HOLT generated during the Dallas race. After I met Peter, Aline introduced me to all the guests at the dinner. I was again surprised at how much interest there is in our sport of NHRA. At the dinner, it was cool because I got to sit at a table with Jim Parker and Allan Archer of HOLT. They treated me like I was a celebrity.

On Wednesday, Aline and Mike picked me up and took me to a Mexican breakfast. They took me to eat at an awesome local restaurant. It was one of the best breakfasts I’ve had. After we ate, they had a day-long employee event at the dealership. The bulk of the day was signing autographs and then we had another dinner party. This was an employee event and I got to speak about our involvement with HOLT and Caterpillar and the dealer technician. I presented Allan and Peter with crew shirts from the race team and from there it was off to Memphis.

I had an early 6 a.m. flight from San Antonio to Memphis on Thursday. I went from the airport to Riggs CAT in West Memphis. Riggs is my hometown dealer in Arkansas. They had a big open house with our Caterpillar show car on display. The coolest thing was that they had me my own parking spot. Cheryl Murray took good care of me during the visit. We met the Riggs employees and customers, there was a live radio remote, it was a really good time.

That night, I freshened up at the hotel and then did the Fan Fest at Coyote Ugly on Beale St. That was fun. Our Caterpillar dragster show car was on display. My crew guys showed up and had a good time on Beale St. The rest of the weekend was more of the same for us. The championship is over with for us, so a big weight has been lifted. We just are going to have fun and go out and try and win races.

It’s good to be home. This is a much needed week off. I’m going to train hard with AT Dave and hit the gym a lot. Dave now calls me Cold Rod because of our performance, and my Arkansas Razorbacks are pretty cold too. That was ugly last weekend against Texas. Dave is an alum of the University of Michigan, so I pull for the Wolverines, too. They aren’t much better than the Hogs this year. I’ve got no good fashion tips. We’ll do our best to rebound at Richmond for the folks at Carter Machinery so Dave can stop calling me Cold Rod.