Howdy, Team Kalitta fans, from the Big Go! Can you believe we are already racing in Indy this season? Man, it seems like this year has just flown by … more so than years past. Anyway, it’s that wonderful time of the year again when everyone who is someone in drag racing makes the pilgrimage to Indy. Indy just has a mystique about it that can’t be explained unless you’re here. I remember my first trip to the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in a somewhat official way back in 1998. I was helping out Whit Bazemore with his Web site at that time and I got to come to Indy to hang out with the team in the pits and shoot photos throughout the event. And shoot photos I did! I can’t remember the exact number of images I snapped that weekend, but I know it was over 500 (I think I posted more than 300 to Baze’s site). I still remember that experience with a big smile on my face. Little did I know 10 years later I would still be involved in NHRA drag racing and be in Indy with the greatest auto racing team in the world.

Like the Indy mystique, it’s hard to express to you the feeling I had when we walked into the pits today and saw the DHL Funny Car being unloaded from its steel, yellow stable. At first, I felt my eyes water up just a little bit, but then this overwhelming sense of calm took over. Then I realized that it was right. It was right to see the DHL FC back in the pits just like it will be right to see it on the track later today. I know in my mind that it will still be Scott at the controls, and I’m sure that moisture that invaded my eyes earlier will reappear, but it is right for Connie, Doug, Jeff and all of us at Kalitta Motorsports to carry on racing the DHL flopper and carry on Scott’s dream of making the car a winner.

Last night, our great friends at Mac Tools held a special reception at a downtown hotel for all of the Mac Tools drivers and crew chiefs and team owners. I was lucky enough to be invited and I finally got a chance to sit down face-to-face to talk to Jeff Arend and his lovely family – wife, Windy and daughter, Jenna. In fact, Jenna was one of the first people I talked to when I arrived. Let me tell you something folks … this little 8-year-old has never met a stranger. Within seconds of introducing myself she eagerly told me about how excited she was to be here and how happy she was that her dad was now driving the DHL car. She even got a special paint scheme on her fingernails to mark the occasion. The Arends are a great family and we’re very thankful to have them as part of our family now.

Watch out! Here comes a shameless plug…

The picture that I’ve posted here of Jenna’s nails and other photos that commemorate this weekend’s activities along with an occasional video or two are being posted daily in a special Indy gallery on the Team Kalitta Website…www.teamkalitta.com, so when you’re done browsing around this terrific site that your on now (I truly am shameless) please stop by our site and click on the graphic link at the top of the home page to take a look at all of the happenings going on with Team Kalitta at the Big Go, including a very touching and heart-warming pic of JimO and Brandon Bernstein (just kidding, boss!).

Thanks everyone and enjoy the greatest spectacle in drag racing!

Todd has left the building.