Alrighty, a lot of cool things have gone on over the last week, so I will do my best to get you up to speed. I left last Wednesday to get into Phoenix. We had a TV deal to do on the local news first thing Thursday morning. After a nice dinner with Jim O., I decided to try my luck at the slot machines. Our team stayed at the new Wild Horse Casino right next to the track. It was a nice casino, and the rooms were great. Anyways I found a 25 cent Wheel of Fortune machine and decided to "invest" a few dollars in it. After winning and then losing about $40, I decided to throw another 20 at it. It paid off as I won about $150, so I cashed out and went to sleep. On Thursday after our TV deal, we hung around the track and I went through my pile of parachutes, folded them all up and got them ready to go for the weekend. Thursday night was basically a carbon copy of Wednesday night except I moved on to the $1 machines. After losing a bit, I ended up winning about another $150 and went over to the bar to watch some of the Olympics. I was just in time to watch Shaun White destroy the competition in the Snowboard HP Competition. It was unbelievable how much higher he was going than the rest of the guys!

Friday afternoon, I got a call from my wife saying she had arrived with my daughter Jenna at the Phoenix airport. They had run in to Danny Gokey at the airport and got a pic with him and Jenna. Of course, I was like, who? She explained to me that he was the third runner-up on American Idol and pretty well known. Who knew? Our day at the track started off with a tire smoking run at about 200 feet. Our DHL crew went to work and after looking at the computer, came up with a good game plan for the night session. They did a great job as our DHL Funny Car ran a nice safe 4.15 to put us in the 6th spot after qualifying ended.

Why is it always that when you look at the weather report for the races a few days before the race and everything looks perfect, it almost means it's going to rain for sure? Same thing when they call for 3 days of rain, you almost know for sure it will mysteriously rain everywhere but at the track, and the race will get done with no problems. Phoenix was no different as 0% chance of rain for the weekend a couple of days before turned into 100% chance of rain Saturday and Sunday. We managed to get one run in on Saturday after dodging rain drops for a few hours. We had a couple of things we wanted to try on the car and what we did ended up working a lot better than we thought. That along with a fix to a part that has been giving us fuel system issues all year caused our DHL Funny Car to have tons of power and smoke the tires at about 200 feet but not before we recorded our best 60-foot time in a couple of years. The guys knew they were on to something and sat down to figure out what to do with our newfound power for Sunday.

Sunday was more rain and as usual when NHRA about gets the track dry, it starts again. It is very hard emotionally as a driver as well as a tuner as you try and get pumped up for your race only to sit around for another hour or two when it starts raining again. I am sure all that time doesn't do the tuners any good as well, as there is just more time to second guess yourself. We finally got to run Jim Head at almost 4 p.m. in the afternoon. I knew that lane choice was going to be important, so I staged it really thin to get the best e.t. possible. Our DHL Funny Car left the line hard recording the best 60-foot time of the session, and by the 330 timer we were already 7-hundredths ahead of Jim. Unfortunately, at about 500 feet, our clutch welded and started to smoke the tires. I pedaled it a couple of times, but Jim ran a decent 4.17 to put us on the trailer. After looking at our run on the computer, we were well on the way to a 4.08 or so run, so that is giving us a lot of confidence going into Gainesville. Our fuel system issues are now resolved, our motor is making some great power, and our 60-foot times which we have struggled with in the past, are now at the top of the list.

We flew back home on Sunday night but were glued to the computer on Monday. Why, you ask. Because my teammate Doug Kalitta was going to his second straight final in as many races driving the Technicoat/Kalitta Air Top Fuel car. Doug's car has been running great and when it hasn't, he has shown his great skills behind the wheel to expertly pedal it into the next round. Connie has Grubby's Top Fuel car running great as well and after a "nuclear run" to get a little TV time on Friday came back in the first round to run a spectacular 3.84 to put Brandon Bernstein's 3.89 on the trailer. If you saw it on TV it was kind of funny to see the look on Kenny Bernstein's face after Grubby laid that run down. That put Grubby up against Doug in the next round. Doug's car dropped a cylinder at the hit, but Grubby smoked the tires giving the win to Doug.

Later on Monday after many rain delays, Doug finally got to run Cory Mac in the final. Cory laid down a great 3.81 and Doug had some problems early in the run. Congrats to Cory for the win, but Doug is right there in second place and is looking great going into Gainesville. Speaking of Gainesville, I hate having to wait almost 3 weeks to go racing again especially when I know that all the cars in the Kalitta Motorsports stable are ready for a win at anytime. We keep making refinements to our DHL Funny Car and it is evident if you look at it closely. Everything just looks better from the paint, to the way the car is plumbed and wired, to the way everything is detailed just a bit nicer than before. I know I have said it before but we are on the verge of really kicking some you know what, and I can't wait for it to get started!

Back on the homefront, I was also very proud of my daughter, Jenna, who made the Principal's Honor Roll at school. This means that she had straight A’s in every class, and on top of that she got the "good conduct" award that basically means she pays attention in class and doesn't get in any trouble, unlike what her dad used to do in school… Ha, ha. She also excelled in her fundraising abilities for the American Heart Association. Her school does something called "Jump Rope for Heart" to raise money for AHA, and Jenna always loves to help out. She ended up raising $1600 by herself and it doesn't hurt when you have Connie and the Kalitta Motorsports people, The Cowboys, and some of our other associates within arms reach for her to sweet talk into a donation! She also just turned 10 years old on the Tuesday after the races, so we got her an iPod Touch to play with. It's amazing how fast that kids can pick up on this stuff. It is certainly a lot different world than the one that was around when I was 10! Speaking of birthdays, our fearless leader Connie turned 72 on Wednesday. You'd never guess it though because he is like a kid at the candy store at the races. Whenever one of his cars starts up he comes running to watch... probably making sure Nicky doesn't waste too much nitro on our warm up. J

I had a big golf match coming up on Friday, so on Thursday I went to the club to get practiced up. I spent about 3 hours there just hitting balls, chipping, and putting and thought I was going to be in good shape going into my match on Friday. Now I always seem to mention when I play well, so it is only fair to report that I got my butt kicked in our Team Play match. We played "away" at another course, which automatically puts you at a disadvantage, but the guy I played ended up playing great and I just didn't have much for him. That's the way golf is, but in the end it is a lot of fun and I love the competition. Anything that I do, I want to win, so I will just put in some more practice and learn from my mistakes, just like in racing or in life.

To end the blog I would just like to express my condolences and those from everybody involved at Kalitta Motorsports to the family and friends of the lady that was tragically killed at the races last week. I know that the smartest minds in drag racing are working hard as we speak to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again.