Hello again. We left off Monday at Seattle and that night, a group of us from both DPM teams, including Rob Flynn and Lee Beard, went to the Red Sox/Mariners game at Safeco Field. I’ve always wanted to check out Safeco Field and I heard what an awesome ball park it is. We couldn’t have picked a better game to attend. We had great weather and the Red Sox Nation was in town. It was Chamber of Commerce weather in Seattle. We didn’t have tickets, but Lee Beard hooked us up and got us some outstanding seats. Let’s just say, we were sitting behind home plate just a few seats away from Boston GM Theo Epstein. We were sitting there and I didn’t know why all these fans were getting some random guy’s autograph, so I asked our sports guru PR Ted who he was? He said it was Theo Epstein. I wanted to get a picture for the blog, but I was too shy to ask.

Ted had a friend sitting few levels up and he told me to stop being a baby, so we ran up the steps. I need to get over this mental handicap about my knee. It felt good to run the stairs at Safeco. Let me tell you, his friend is a keeper. LOL She could be “the one.” We had a great time at the game and the Sox won, 4-0.

The next morning, I rode with my crew guys for a Caterpillar dealer appearance at Halton Cat in Portland. I drove our white Sequoia and bonded with my bottom end guy Cody Jackson, who is from Oregon. I was impressed, when we rolled into the dealer; they had a big display set up for us. It was pretty awesome. It was a great reception for our race team. After it was over Mike Davenport gave me a tour of the facility and I got to meet the GM Tanner Halton. I was impressed with Tanner because he is about my age. Like Theo Epstein, he’s young and successful. I ended up playing the hand-slap reaction time game with Tanner and his sister Sarah, and Sarah has the best reactions. She’d be a good leaver. Then it was off to the airport to fly to Oakland.

PR Ted and John Cardinale from Infineon had a jam-packed Wednesday for me. I attended the press conference at noon in my favorite city, San Francisco. The big topic of the day was about me and “the Dark Side.” We’ll touch on that later. After the presser, I drove across the bay to visit the folks at Peterson Cat in San Leandro. I know a lot of the Peterson folks, so I feel real comfortable with that group. Rich Hasper had about 40 CAT die cast dragsters for me to sign. From there, I had to haul butt back across the Bay Bridge to Fior d’Italia for the NHRA Burnout Bash. Fior is the oldest Italian restaurant in the country.

We had a charity poker tournament with six drivers, including Cory Mac and J.R. I was doing pretty good in poker, but had to leave to visit my buddy Gary Radnich, a sports anchor on KRON TV in S.F. John had a limo waiting to take me to the TV station. The limo had a racing theme to it. It was the first time I had been in a limo alone. It was a strange feeling to get out and have people looking at me. As always, the interview with Gary was great. He doesn’t hold back. He’ll ask some crazy questions. After the interview, I went back to Fior for dinner. J.R. won the poker tournament. It was a fun night with all the proceeds going to Speedway Children’s Charity.

One of the highlights of the Sonoma race for me is getting to hangout with the Jeffrey family, Ashley, Judy, Justine, Denise and Carla. They own Western Stabilization and have supported me for many years. Thank you guys for everything.

I was excited to qualifying seventh as that put us on the same side as Tony and the U.S. Army team. I thought we had a car to compete with them, but they got us again. They’re 4-2 against us this season. I was pretty bummed out until PR Ted told me that we were the last car to beat them way back at Norwalk in the second round. The Army car might be the most dominant car in the history of our sport, at least in Top Fuel. I was excited that Hillary Will was running him in the final round. Rachel, the team manager at Kalitta Motorsports, asked if they could borrow our light saber. We thought it might give Hillary good luck. I guess Jim O called her Princess Lea on ESPN2. We were bummed that she lost, but we congratulate Tony and the U.S. Army team. To sweep the Swing is a big-time accomplishment. It’s going to take more than us to stop that freight train. Those guys don’t make mistakes and Tony is driving great. They’ll be hard to beat at 1,000-foot. They’re about to set a bunch of records this season. Sometimes it feels like we’re all racing for second place.

Also, Justine Jeffrey was runner-up in Super Comp last Sunday. She did a great job and just came short against Dean Hall. So, good job Justine.

I’m back in Vegas for a weekend off to get rested up for the Zoo and Brainerd.

Take care,

Hot Rod