Once again I'm sorry for my delay and my lapse between blogs. Quite a bit has happened since my last blog so let me try to bring you all up to date.

I invited all of Jon’s classmates, the 12th grade graduating class from Southlake Christian Academy, over to the house for a graduation party and we had a great time. The weather was great and all the toys were out on the lake for a day of fun and celebration. Luckily I talked my buddies Bob, Hans, John, and Greg into coming over and helping me. It was a great time and I sure loved having all of Jon’s friends over at the house.

With everything that has happened the past few months I have become very close to the students and I think we have a developed a special relationship that will last for the rest of my life, they are just a great bunch of young men and women and I sure love them all and wish them the best as they go on with their lives and start college and the journey down the road of life. Many of them are moving away so I will miss my visits by the school to see them. They are the ones that came up with the name and theme for B.R.A.K.E.S. so they are helping Jon and James’ memory and their legacy will continue on to help other teens stay safe with the BRAKES program.

One of the other awesome things that I have done is attend the NASCAR race down at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte. I was lucky enough to be a guest of the Evernham & Gillett race team and got to spend the weekend with Ray, George and the entire gang. What a great time and what a great bunch of people!

I stayed until the end of the night and was lucky enough to have spent the race night on the top of Kasey Kahne’s pit box with Ray and George. And even got into the winner's circle with the team! I have to thank them; it was a great experience and one that I won’t ever forget!

Just before the last pit stop I asked Ray if there was anything that I could do to help and he said that maybe the only thing would be to put a little bit of nitro into the tank! After Kasey won the race I told Ray that I was happy that that little bit of nitro that I added to the gas can helped and his jaw dropped! Of course I was kidding but that look on his face was priceless! It’s no wonder that Ray has won so many races over the years with Jeff Gordon, Kasey and his other drivers he is one smart dude, and one heck of a great guy.

This past week since Topeka has been a fun one, too! My buddies Tony Ledford and Bill T Shirt Gillissie had invited me to participate in a Rooster fish tournament in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico several times and luckily this year I was able to go! The main reason I had never gone in the past was that it is such a painful process to go from a race to Mexico and then back the following weekend to another race but this year thanks to my friend Don Schumacher and him letting me tag along on his plane with him and our buddy Roger Comstock I was able to go. Thanks Don! Over the past few months Don has went out of his way for me several times including coming to the memorial services for James and Jon and it means a lot to me, Don’s a good guy.

The roosterfish tournament was great and we had a load of fun fishing but honestly the most fun was being able to spend some time with my friends and some great people. It was just what I needed.

There was 36 anglers total in the tournament that fished over three days on 12 boats, three anglers per boat and switching boats and fishing partners each day. The Roosterfish can really fight like crazy and the rules say that as soon as one angler gets a hook up the other two guys on the boat have to pull their line in to let the guy with the hooked fish have the room to bring the fish in, that is of course if they can bring it on the boat within the 30-minute time limit that is given in the rules!

I got a picture of Don giving a big hug to one of the fish that he caught on the last day of the tournament. He’s a heck of a fisherman and actually by being in the top four angers Don and Roger both qualified for the Rolex international billfish tournament next year down in Cabo.

More than 200 anglers from around the world will be competing and you have to qualify just to get accepted so this was huge! Congratulations, men!

Well, I guess this is about all that I have to report for now. I guess this is enough! Until next time the Snap-on team will continue to work hard to get that first race win for the season and hopefully get us into the position that we need to be in to accomplish our goal of winning the 2008 NHRA Top Fuel Championship. One thing that I just saw that made me really proud in National DRAGSTER, I earned the number-one position for the reaction time average for the year!

My competitors are tough but I think everyone can see the drive and determination that I am driving with this year. I want to win, for my boys James and Jon.