Season’s greetings, blog readers! LP bringing you a quick update from the last day at the shop before everyone on the Snap-on team heads to wherever they are headed to spend the holidays. We have people headed to all parts of the country, from California to Oregon, Tennessee to Virginia. A few call North Carolina and South Carolina home year round, so those lucky ducks don’t have to board a plane or get in their cars. Before I get into the stuff that’s been going on this week, we want to let Keith know that everyone on the team is praying for you and your family. Our thoughts are with you during this very difficult time.

As for what’s been happening around here, Brad, SupaDave, Beaker and I headed out to Lowes Motor Speedway on Wednesday to drop off the show car. Doug attended a holiday party at The Speedway Club that evening, and they asked to have the car on display. While they were busy unloading the car, I had the opportunity to snap some pictures and watch as people drove by, slowed down and checked out the rig. By the time they had unloaded the car and put it in its spot, just about everyone going in and out of the entrance had stopped to ask questions about the dragster. Everyone had positive and exciting things to say about the drag strip coming to Charlotte. If the conversations we had with people are any indication, drag racing in NASCAR country will be huge!!

KP brought the singing and dancing penguin he got at last week’s Christmas party to the shop. This little guy, affectionately referred to as DougZooky, has turned into our team mascot. He attends the morning meetings, keeps a watchful eye on the shop, and somehow manages to keep us all entertained. Apparently he got into a bit of a tussle with one of the other toys at the shop. Now he sports a DougZilla shirt. Pretty cool, huh?

How many of you have wondered how the crew gets into each race? Okay, most of you blog readers are avid fans, so you probably know we all have hard card credentials, a magical card that identifies each of us to our respective team. To get the cards, we have to sign a few forms and send in a passport sized photo to NHRA. The cards will be ready for us by the time we get to Pomona, and from then on we are good to go. First, though, we have to get the photos. As the unofficial team photographer, I had everyone pose for me earlier in the week. Once I had the shots, I took them to Shawn, who resized them for us. If you look closely, you can see everyone on the team is now a member of the Small family. Ha! “You’re killing me, Smalls,” a quote from the movie Sandlot, creeps into my vocabulary quite often as it is. This takes it to a whole new level.

This last photo captures the essence of what has been going around here at the shop. We caught Mike with the freshly “DougZilla’d” blower hat, which rest assured, has rested on everyone’s noggin’ at some point or another. I like to think of it as a sign of good things and fun times to come. Everyone has been busting their butts getting things ready for next season, but it hasn’t kept us from having fun. Now we are going to enjoy the holidays, and come back ready to work harder than ever to make sure 2008 is the best season the Snap-on team has ever had!

I speak for Doug and everyone on the team when I say have a wonderful Christmas!

Until next time, be good,

LP