Hi, everyone

Well, I am sitting in the airport in Indianapolis with a big weather delay on Tuesday, and I thought it would be a great time to catch you up with what's been going on.

As I'm sure you all know, the weather in St. Louis was a little tricky because we lost a whole day of qualifying and, man, does that hurt. With this no-testing rule, we need all the runs we can get. The only thing that took the pressure off was that there were only 16 cars there, but we still needed the extra runs.

On our first lap we had some timing issues and it put two holes out, so I clicked it off early. On our second lap it took off and I could really tell it was hauling the mail, but about half-track I could really feel it spinning the tires and I decided to step off the pedal about 100 feet early. The guys came over the radio and said it ran a 4.14, so I knew that we were going to have a fast race car on Sunday.

All the pressure was off and we were going to have lane choice in the morning. Even though we had a good car, Tommy is always trying to get it to run better. So, he wanted to stay a little longer to look at the computer before Ron Capps, Tommy, and I were supposed to go to dinner. It started to get late and we talked Tommy into leaving so we could get something to eat. Tommy hopped on the scooter with Ron, and I got on mine to go back to the car. Everything started off well, but it sure got ugly fast. I was ahead of them and looked back to see were they were and the next thing I saw was Tommy falling off the scooter at about 15 mph. He took a pretty hard bounce off the pavement.

I have to give it to Capps. Even though he threw Tommy off, he did a hell of a job saving his scooter. It was like I saw it in slo-mo. I couldn't help but burst out laughing before spinning around to see if they were all right. I think that was the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

When I got over to Tommy he was skinned up and bleeding on his forearm and was holding his hip. The only thing he said when I asked him if he was okay was "I didn't lose my cigarette." I couldn't help but laugh some more as he hopped right back on with Ron and we headed for the cars.

I guess Tommy's homework paid off because on Sunday in first round we went out there and laid down low e.t. of 4.10 and fastest mile per hour of 303 for the event. I just knew we were going to have a winning race car.

Even though we were racing, I still would laugh when the body was up and Tommy would reach up and turn the air bleeds and you could see that big scab on his arm. It's stuff like that you never forget.

The next round we had Tony Pedregon, and this is a guy I really want to beat. In our last two match-ups he won both of them, and I know I didn't want to make it three in a row. Tony is the type of guy that you have to get pumped up for because he can cut a good light and you don't want to get left on. So we lined them up and we both left the same and I couldn't see him so I knew I was ahead. Then, all of a sudden, I could see some fire coming in under the body, but the car was still pulling and we were still winning. The fire just kept getting bigger, and I decided to lift. I watched Tony pull away for the win. It felt like someone ripped my guts out, and I know all the guys were feeling the same way.

We got back and found out it was an inner head stud that broke and it pushed the head gasket out on the run. It really stinks to lose because of a broken part. With 7,000 horsepower, I guess we are going to break a part or two.

Well that is how my weekend went, and now it's back home to work on the farm for a while.

See you at the races,
Matt