I’ve been sitting here in the hotel room this morning contemplating how to begin this last installment of the V-LOG, which I sincerely appreciate all of the comments and e-mails I have received about this little literary adventure. I have several thoughts swimming around in my aging and depleting brain. Some of them are probably pertinent to place here and others are just random thoughts that mutate into forms of silliness that I can’t even explain. Ok, back to the matter at hand. So, how to begin? Wait…I think I just did. Yippee! Problem solved.

Well, A LOT of time has passed since I first committed the binary bits that form that first paragraph to this. After I wrote the aforementioned first 'graph I left the hotel to go back out to the race track and see how the testing was going. Actually, I went first to have a now traditional lunch at Bahama Breeze with my good friend, Chee. You remember Chee, right? She did a guest blog here during the Western Swing. I took a pretty good photo of us standing outside the restaurant, but Chee insisted that I not post it (Please give Chee grief when you see her…it really is a good photo).



Anyway, back to the track. When I got there they were just towing the lovely and talented Miss Will back into the pits after a great 4.52 pass. I found Jim “O” and asked how it was going and he told me that the lap she made before that one was a 4.53 at over 331. I’m sure that makes him feel so much better after they struggled so much in qualifying.

This morning I had an e-mail from Jeff White, whereabouts unknown, about the rear wing on Doug Kalitta’s dragster. Jeff, being ever astute, noticed that it looked like something was wrong with the wing just as Doug crossed the finish line after the final round from the fine coverage on ESPN2. Yes, indeed Jeff … something was wrong. There is nothing but speculation at the moment, but it looks as if something in the main element failed which set into motion a chain of other failures with eventually lead to one of the spill plates breaking off. I’m sure you all know this could have been a catastrophic problem, but luckily for everyone it happened as the car was decelerating. I’m sure there will be an investigation by our team and the wing builder to prevent any further issues. Thanks for the note Jeff.



Okay, so I have one more celebrity sighting from yesterday. Custom motorcycle builder Jesse Rooke and X-Games star Carey Hart stopped by the Team Kalitta camp as guests of Mac Tools. Ben took them around and gave them a quick tour of the cars and the haulers. Now, being a fan of both of these gentlemen, I decided it was time to get a picture with myself included. That’s me in the middle in case you couldn’t tell…

Another attaboy to Doug and the Mac Tools/Long Way Down team for another spectacular run through eliminations in Vegas. Two finals in a row sure does lift the spirits. Plus, Doug’s four-round run moved him up into 10th in points. 10th does not pay this year, but a Top 10 finish to the year would certainly be a big confidence boost going into ’08.

I’m sending this quite a bit later than I had intended so my good buddy Phil may not get this posted until Tuesday, so I apologize if so. I’ll make it up somehow I promise. Maybe I’ll continue the daily blogs through Pomona? Hmmm. I will need a new a name if I do…any ideas? Hypothetically speaking, of course.

TTYL! (Yeah, I am a texting fiend) Todd has left the building.