The week of the inaugural Carolina Nationals was a pretty busy week, starting on Tuesday when we attended the Bruton Smith party in honor of the opening of the zMax Dragway. This gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of people and see the tower up close. I took in how magnificent a job everyone had done on the track in Charlotte. It is just an unbelievable facility and being able to compete at that facility was outstanding for my team and me.

On Wednesday we were at James Martin Middle School, where we had our fourth Race for Achievement assembly of the NHRA season. It was the largest assembly of students that I have spoken to all year. It was roughly a little less than 500 seventh graders. I had a tremendous time. They asked a lot of great questions.

I will be remised in not thanking a lot of people that helped put this assembly together. Coke came on board and gave out drinks to the students when they viewed the car and transporter. Thanks to them for that added touch. Colette Williams, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Career and Technical Education, and Dr. Renfro, principal of James Martin Middle School, helped the Race for Achievement program be a success by allowing us to partner with them.

The kids loved it. The rain kind of put a damper on it at the end, but I tell you what, they were bouncing off the walls. It is kind of funny that we had to leave them when we get them all hyped up and the teachers have to figure out how to calm them down. (smile) All-in-all, it was a great program, and I am looking forward to implementing some great things at the school. You will hear more about that later through our website.

We went from Wednesday to competing at the inaugural Carolinas Nationals at the new zMax Dragway. We had a pretty good event. The crew still played with some situations with our No. 20 Race for Achievement Chevy Cobalt, causing us to not really run the latter half of the track like we should have and are capable of running. Thus, we did not qualify. But, you know what, again, all-in-all it was a great week. Richie Stevens, who drives for Kenny Koretsky, rented another engine and qualified fourth. We just have to get our act together so that we can get up there with him and be in a position where we can qualify and have a chance to win the race. We are in the process of coming back and re-evaluating our program now. We will miss a couple of races and come back for the Richmond race to finish the rest of the year.

I am just excited about our race team and what we have going on this year regarding our Race for Achievement program and some of the things we have to look forward to in the future.

Oh yeah, I can’t forget to mention how good it was to see some old friends while in Charlotte. As you know I played briefly for the Charlotte Hornets and have some close friends, as well as, retired teammates that live in the area. One in particular, Tyrone “Mugsy” Bogues moved back after his career was over. I’ll tell you now that he and I had a lot of fun seeing who would make it to the plane for an away game and who would make it home first after a long road trip. We spent many nights going from stop light to stop light (if you catch my drift)! Luckily no was hurt, and thank God we didn’t get caught! Okay, you all do not try this!