The days have been long and the nights have been too short lately. I feel like I am just now catching up with everything. Richmond and New York definitely took its toll, but I'm back in Indy and just waiting to get to Las Vegas for next week's race.

The last time I wrote we had qualified in the No. 7 spot, something that disappointed the team. What was more disappointing was losing in the first round. Richmond didn't work out like we thought at all. The car slowed down from qualifying to race day for some reason and our day was over quickly.

I always try to think of a bright spot to every race and it was difficult to find one there. Mel also lost early (second round) so the only good thing was that we were able to leave Richmond early and head to New York for her Women's Sports Foundation awards ceremony.

As soon as Mel lost we changed, got the motor home ready for one of the guys to drive back to Indy and went straight to the airport. We had to take different planes to get there because all of our plans had been drastically changed when the first Richmond race was rained out. So we met back up at the airport in New York and there was a car waiting for us to take us to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in downtown. That made us feel like real stars.

We got checked in and Mel went to the athlete's suite to get her gift bag and we spent time going through that back at the hotel, eating pizza. We ordered a pizza and two sodas and it cost $62. It was the best $62 meal I've ever had, but it should have been, for that price. I had not eaten all day so I was starving, but thank goodness it was good, otherwise I think I still might be upset over paying that much for one pizza.

We went to bed at 1 a.m. which was particularly late considering we had to set the alarm clock for 5 a.m. Mel went to do an interview for the Fox and Friends morning show. All morning shows are great PR but they are very tough on the guests who aren't used to getting up so early and having to be a live show so early in the morning. Once she left for that, I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I waited for her to get back and as soon as she did, we had to leave for another interview.

She did an interview for ESPN's Cold Pizza and while she and volleyball player Misty May were on the show, I hung out with Misty's husband, Matt Treanor. He's the catcher for the Florida Marlins, so that was fun. It seems like I meet great baseball players every year. But Matt was great to hang out with while our wives did the show. He and Misty live in Long Beach and they just might show up to Pomona. We would love to have them check out the car.

After Cold Pizza was over, we went back to the hotel and I quickly found out that the evening was a black tie affair. I had brought a suit with me and I didn't want to be the only one not wearing a tux. Luckily a friend of mine, John Haygood, came to visit us at the hotel and told me about a place right down the street from the hotel where I could rent a tux.

That is one of the great things about New York. You can walk a few blocks and get fitted for a tux on the spot … no problem! John's great for information about the city. He's a cameraman for CBS and he knows everything about the city.

While I was getting the tux situation taken care of, Mel went to her luncheon with the other athletes who were nominated for the award. She then went straight to hair and makeup and we met back in the room at 4:30 p.m. after I had taken some pictures of her car sitting outside the hotel. Then we got dressed and it was on to the champagne reception and the awards ceremony.

We had a great time. The folks at Coca-Cola purchased a table so we got to sit with them and then Mel won! She did a great job on stage and I was very excited for her. Not only is it good for her to win this award, but also it's good for drag racing to be part of the mix. Everyone in our sport wins when a driver is honored with something like this. She gave a great speech and she was a great representative for the entire sport.

We had a good time all around, but it was a bunch of long days all together and we had to get up early again on Tuesday morning. Mel was a guest on the CBS Morning Show and I went with her but realized there wasn't much I could do to help for the rest of the day, so I flew back to Indy so I could get some errands done before she got back.

I got some stuff taken care of before I went to the airport and picked her up at 6:30 p.m. Then, we had a big celebration dinner of Chipotle. We ate our Mexican food sitting on the floor while we went through mail. Just to keep our streak alive, I got up early on Wednesday, just after 5 a.m. and went straight to the shop to pick up the motor home.

We're having the motor home worked on this week, so I had to drive three and a half hours to drop it off at Monaco. I didn't get back to the shop until 2 p.m.