Howdy readers.

It’s your resident Kalitta blog dictator taking the reins again for a quick interlude. I hope you all (remember, that’s y'all where I come from) are enjoying getting to meet some of the fine folks here at Kalitta Motorsports that make things around here with wheels go really fast. The crew guys have been teasing me quite a bit about setting up a blog schedule, and subsequent wall calendar, and not including myself. They believe that this is an effort by me to dodge my duties that I have cleverly disguised as me being more organized and diverse…so, with my tongue sticking out, here I am for a literary appearance.

Over the past few days the race rigs have been loading up and leaving for various destinations. The Mac Tools race car and hauler are headed to Orlando for the annual Mac Tools Fair. Scott’s DHL rig, a.k.a. Super Twinkie, and Grubby’s rig are en route with their precious tubular cargo to testing in Las Vegas. Soon, the KB Racing, LLC rig with roll out of here with HW’s rail ride and our big grey metal nest will be empty. All of the departures have got my cerebral cells in overdrive thinking about what’s to come for our team and our sport in 2008.

To say that there is a new energy and outlook around this particular race shop would be highly downplaying the biggest attitude adjustment (sorry Bocephus) that I have witnessed since joining this team in 2002. It’s evident in people’s faces. It’s evident in words and actions. It’s evident in the 3-foot by 6-foot banners that hang near each of the four cars that read: WE HAVE THE POWER TO WIN…HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? Each banner has been autographed by everyone in the shop to remind us all on a constant basis that winning is always within our collective power. All we have to do is go out there and get it.

Our team manager, Rachel, has a framed display in her office that reminds us to “Race Like A Champion Today.” It’s borrowed from the sign that hangs in the Notre Dame football stadium, but the impact of those words is equal across all sporting boundaries. I’m excited about 2008 for this team and for our sport. The potential that lies within Kalitta Motorsports and drag racing is infinite. Our sport is what we all make it, from the first time fan in top row to the racers to the officials to the suits in the suites. It is all of our responsibility to make NHRA drag racing the best we can make it. That’s my challenge to me and everyone reading this.

Okay … enough rah, rah from me for now. On a personal note…I noticed that my good buddy LP, PR rep for Doug Herbert, made mention about her beloved Kentucky Wildcats winning their bowl game versus Florida State in a recent blog. LP and I have a friendly rivalry over our homestate teams, so I am using this opportunity, because I’m the one typing, to point out that my beloved Tennessee Volunteers not only won their bowl game as well over Wisconsin, but that the mighty Vols did, in fact, defeat LP’s Wildcats this past season, 52-50 in four overtimes in Lexington. I have proudly commemorated these events with the addition of a big “T” that is now triumphantly affixed to the side of the “Big Orange” Mac Tools TECH 1000 toolbox that resides in my office (photo evidence provided).

Go Vols!

Todd has left the building.