First off I've got to give a big shout out to a faithful "GilbyManiac" Dennis Martinez from Pacific Coast Andoizing in Fresno, Calif. After I mentioned my birthday in a previous blog, Dennis decided to make me up a special present and to my surprise the UPS dude knocked on the door yesterday with a package and I had no idea what it was. I opened it up and to my surprise I'm now the proud owner of a really cool, one-of-a-kind license plate frame that highlights my infamous "Nitro Fume Collection Device." Made out of billet aluminum, engraved by Scott of Lansco Engineering in nearby Atascadero, who machines main caps for Alan Johnson, it's really cool present and I thank both you guys and a care package is on it's way to you.

Next up I don't know how many of you have seen this so I figured I'd post this shot of a new safety device for Funny Car drivers. As you may know, Dale Creasy Jr. suffered severe injuries earlier this year when the reverser failed and the shifter arm spun tearing up both of his legs, requiring multiple surgeries.  The Creasys came up with this idea and now chassis builder Murf McKinney is building these carbon-fiber covers for the driveshaft area. The shifter lever, instead of being in-between the driver's legs, is moved to the left side next to the fuel shut-off lever. Now if something in the drive train fails it's contained by the cover.

Now here's a shot of two guys I've known since they were both young kids growing up in the sport, Nicky Boninfante Jr. (left) and Mike Kloeber. As you probably know, Nicky captained the good ship Gilby earlier this year and after we took the summer off he went to the Kalitta team. Mike helped us out in both Charlotte and Rockingham and is now with the Monster Team for who knows how long.

If I had Alan Johnson's money to put together a team these are the two guys I'd pick as my co-crew chiefs. Both of them have championships in their résumés, they're liked and well respected, they're both hard workers and I wish both of them all the success in the world.

By the way, run their last names (Boninfante & Kloeber) through spell check and see what pops up …  pretty funny.

That's it for now, type at you L8R.

BB