Hello again blog…er, uh, I mean V-LOG readers! Welcome to the third installment of the Team Kalitta Las Vegas chronicles. As I sat down to do some digital dancing on the keyboard this morning, I couldn’t help but think of Gilligan’s Island. Why, you ask? Well, my sometimes (okay, often…) warped mind couldn’t help but think of the millionaire, Thurston Howell, III, when I took to writing. There is no other reason except for the fact that they are both “Thirds”, but now I can’t get that silly theme song out of my head, or stop daydreaming about Mary Ann! My apologies to Jim Backus and Dawn Wells, a former Miss Nevada coincidentally...

Okay, so I’m go out of chronological order here and start with the freakish incident that occurred last night as we were leaving The Strip after the day’s activities ended. Let me set the stage. Ben, Rachel Brunner (Team Kalitta Team Manager), and John Glover, who does a great job for our team assisting with sponsor relations, and I all made a somewhat tired stroll out to the parking lot to once again find Buttercup to take us back to the hotel. We were walking and talking and doing a bit of exhausted laughing when I looked up to see just where we left our four-wheeled friend in the lot. Then, it happened. “What?!”, I exclaimed. And there it was…a second Buttercup! Yes, another pale yellow PT Cruiser in the lot. What are the odds? Well, better than I had thought evidently. We had to take a photo of the two “siblings” together. Buttercup is the one shining its illuminating peepers.

As I told you faithful followers a couple of days ago, we have all sorts of exciting happenings and famous people convening in the Team Kalitta pit area this weekend. Yesterday, we had a special guest that wasn’t on the provisional list of dignitaries, but one who was certainly welcomed quickly and triumphantly by Dave Grubnic and me. Grubby and I are both big music aficionados and the man than came by to hang out with us yesterday is one of the all-time best and one of our heroes, Nigel Olsen. Mr. Olsen is a legendary percussionist and is best known for his drumming work with Sir Elton John. He is also a huge auto racing fan. He’s in town playing the drums for Mr. John at some Vegas shows, but stopped by the race track yesterday to get a dose of nitro. Thanks to Nigel for stopping by to give two music fans a big thrill!

Lastly, and certainly not least…I was just talking to my buddy Scott Kalitta this fine Saturday morning and he added an anecdote to our usual morning conversation that I just had to share with you. Thursday night Corey Kalitta, Scott’s oldest son and admittedly the biggest critic of his dad’s Funny Car foray, texted his dad to tell him, in the tradition of American Idol, that he, Scott, is NHRA’s Greatest Idler because it seems that sometimes he does more idling down the track than racing under full power. Now, this was funny to begin with and Scott and I both got a big chuckle, but there’s more. Yesterday, after Scott made two successful laps down The Strip in qualifying, he thought a rebuttal was in order and sent a text to Corey proclaiming the good, sans idling, news. A few moments later Corey replied with this, “Who are you, and what have you done with my dad?!” Great stuff!

See you tomorrow! Todd has left the building.