Sorry it took me so long to get in a blog update, but it has been a very busy week. After our last weekend at home, we hit it hard from Monday on.

Our rig was going to head to Vegas on Monday, but with all the usual last minute things that go on when you are trying to leave the shop for the first time of the year, we held off until Tuesday. The guys were busy finishing the last minute details of the new Chevy Impala SS body. What an undertaking it is to develop a new body. I have to give it my guys for all the long hours they have put into this piece. Scott Wible and Nate, our fab guys at the shop, have worked non-stop since November on the new bodies. No matter how much time you have, it always come down to the wire, and it wouldn’t have happened without Scott’s leadership. He’s a phenomenal fabricator.

The guys finished just before lunch and hit the road right after grabbing a bite to eat last Tuesday. They had an interesting, but uneventful trip out west. They told me all the stories about the ice hanging from power lines and how all the hotels where packed with people who where stranded from all the bad weather throughout the plains states. Thankfully they didn’t encounter any problems and the rigs made it safely to Vegas.

I flew out to San Diego on Wednesday morning to pick up our motor home. We store it for the winter at our shop in Vista, Calif. Last year, when I went pick up our motor home, all the batteries where dead and it wouldn’t start. This year I was luckier. It fired right up. I left Vista about 4:30 Wednesday and headed north on I-15 to Vegas. I pulled into the track Wednesday night about midnight. I was starting to drag a little since my body was on Eastern Time.

Thursday morning I took it in to get new brakes and called the guys to see where they where at. I spent the rest of the day taking a little breather and not doing much. The guys rolled into Vegas about 6 p.m. Thursday evening.

We hit it hard on Friday setting up the pit are and getting the new body through NHRA tech. We breezed right through! That was encouraging, but not surprising since we have our own templates like NHRA uses to measure the bodies at our shop. The last thing you want is coming to the track and have to redo a bunch of stuff on the body when that should really be done at the shop. The day went really smooth. It was one of the smoothest first days of testing I can remember. We finished the last-minute things and fired the car about 3 p.m. on Friday. It is pretty cool here in Vegas, but we wanted to just go up and get that first run out of the way. The track temp was only 49 degrees so we weren’t expecting much, but an .866 60-foot time before it shook the tires was very encouraging. I can tell you the, sitting inside the Impala is much different from the Monte Carlo. It will take some getting used to.

On Saturday, we where ready to go after having a solid opening day on Friday. We had a slide valve failure on the first run causing it to shake the tires. I hope our second run is of signs of things to come from this Skoal Racing team this season. It left strong and continued to a planned half track shut-off run. The numbers were spectacular, .877 60-foot, 2.25 330-foot. Even better, it posted our best-ever half-track numbers, 3.202 seconds at 270.81 mph. We ran a 4.672 last season at Joliet, and this run was on pace to be two or three hundreds better than that. I think all the hard work on this body and car over the winter has paid off for the guys. We tried to make one more on Saturday, but the track just got too cold. It was only 49 degress. Brittany Force had a little incident and I’m glad she’s okay. We’ve all been there an experienced those things, I know she'll bounce back real soon.

The weather was a little worse on Sunday morning. Although it isn’t as bad as it is at home in Indy. Our neighbors, the Knocks, e-mailed me a picture of the snowman they built this morning. Even though the wind is blowing pretty hard here and chilly, it’s better than being in Indy right now. Melanie said the puppies weren’t quite sure what to think about their first snow experience. Indy got a few inches of snow overnight into Sunday morning.

The wind was really strong and the track was cold, so not much happened today. But, it’s been a good test so far. Besides, we all wanted to watch the Colts game. I even wore my Colts sweatshirt to the track yesterday. Melanie, Chad and Michelle were lucky enough to go to the game, and what a great game it was. We got back to the hotel right before halftime when the Colts made it 21-6. I was worried when they were down 18 points. We all sat at the bar at the Cannery and watch the game. When the others there found out we were from Indy, they all rooted on the Colts with us. I took my sweatshirt off at halftime thinking it was the jinx and it worked because they played an awesome second half. It was a nail biter. When they won, I got on the phone and left a message with Freddy Bear to see about Super Bowl tickets. I just might have to try and go to Miami now.

I’m just glad to be back in the seat and get the new season kicked off. Our team picked right back up where we left off last season and maybe even a little better. I’ll try and keep you update on how things finish up at Vegas and during Phoenix test. We’ll run today, service on Tuesday and drive to Phoenix on Wednesday. I think you’ll see a lot more cars at Phoenix. That’s all for now.