How about the new zMax Dragway! I had been to the NASCAR race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway several times and had always hoped they would build a dragstrip there for us to race on. Bruton not only built one, he built the best one we have. Everything is first class and the track surface was spectacular for never having a race there before. There were a couple of things that need to be addressed as you will always get with a new facility, (win lights are hard to see and the staging lanes are a little to small and hard to get into with people coming in and getting out of the track). But those are easy fixes. How about the crowd they drew? I had appearances on Thursday and when I got back to the track that afternoon I couldn’t believe the cars in the parking lot on a Thursday. That was my first sign it was going to be big. Friday’s crowd was one of the biggest I have ever seen for a Friday. Saturday and Sunday didn’t disappoint either. I never had so many people tell me at the ropes that they were thrilled with being able to be in the pits and get so close to us for autographs. I think we may have converted several NASCAR fans or at least made them fans of NHRA, too.

It was a great week for me as I got to hang with my family. As we travel all season you don’t get to spend much quality time with the family like I used to. Now that I have a three year old nephew I try to spend as much time with him when I get the chance. He’s great and loves racing.

We got to Charlotte on Tuesday afternoon and parked our motorhome at my dad’s shop. My dad, Melanie and I loaded in the car and headed to the new track for a party Bruton was throwing. It was a mixer of NASCAR and NHRA people to celebrate the new track. They had a run what you brung and I was going to drive my dad’s Camaro. It wasn’t running right so we didn’t take it. Roger Burgess, Melanie’s car owner, brought a couple of cars over from Atlanta so I made some runs in them. I got to drive his new Dodge Challenger and that thing runs pretty well.

Wednesday we got up and had breakfast with my mom, dad, and aunt and uncle who were down visiting from Iowa. We washed our motorhome at my dad’s only to have it start raining just as we finished. I drove it out to the track to park it in the rain and then wiped it down by hand again. Wednesday night my dad had a party at his shop. There were a lot of his friends he has made in the NASCAR world since moving to Charlotte and several drag racers he had invited. It’s too bad it rained all night because I think a lot of people didn’t think we were still having it.

Thursday Brandon and I played golf with the folks from Monster and Bud. I couldn’t believe we would play when I woke up Thursday with all the rain we had. It was a little muddy on the course, but I did hit the drive of my life. I’m lucky if I get a 200-yard drive and this one went at least 250 or more. I don’t know how I did it, but I’ll take it. After golf we did three autograph sessions at a couple of Wal-Mart’s and a Food Lion. I left the track at 8:45 in the morning and got home at 8:45 that night. That was a long day.

I saw and met several people from the NASCAR world over the weekend. My buddy Ray Ray who works for Michael Waltrip and several of his friends camped out at the track. Mel and I went to their campsite for a visit after Friday’s qualifying. David Stremme who just got the #12 ride with Penske next year stopped by the pits and I showed him the cockpit. The list goes on and on as I think anyone who wasn’t at the race in New Hampshire was at the drag races.

Our weekend with the Monster car didn’t go as well as I would have liked, but I don’t think John Force’s went to well either. How can you be to upset when John Force doesn’t make the show either? I’m really ready to have a good successful weekend though. It’s been a tough year, but I’m doing all I can to have a successful weekend for the Monster team. After so much disappointment the guys really do deserve a good weekend. I could use one too. Hopefully we can hit the tune up and I can drive it to a victory or at least some rounds before the year is over.

Now to my nephew Gage. He and I rode down to the top end Friday night and looked at the sand trap. As we looked back up the track he said that he watched the races from on top of the castle. I thought it was funny, but then I thought about it and with Bruton building it, it does look like a castle. Funny how kids look at things sometimes. Saturday night after I didn’t make the show Gage and I rode his tricycle together. He did a good job of making a bad weekend not seem so bad. Sunday morning Melanie took Gage out with her during driver introductions. My sister reminded me that I hadn’t qualified any time that Gage has come to watch us so he got to walk out with Melanie. He and I went up with my parents and sister and her husband to watch first round from the suites. It was a great place to watch from even though it wasn’t the view I wanted to see first round from. After aunt Melanie lost first round I wasn’t much interested in watching anymore so they went back each round to watch and Gage filled me in on who was doing what.

His favorite driver is Tony Bartone (isn’t it funny how kids pick up stuff and you have no idea how it happened, he just one day wanted to know how Tony did and that he was his driver). On Saturday I took him over to meet his favorite driver. Tony was great and took time with him. He signed his diecast car and gave Gage a Canidae gift bag. I had to help Gage apply the temporary tattoo that was in the bag. We told Tony that he was Gage’s favorite and he said that was great, but Gage was a bad judge of character. He ran into Tony again Sunday morning in Melanie’s lounge and he just sat there without saying much. He got a little shy around his driver.

We all went out to dinner Sunday night and Gage slept through the whole thing. A big weekend at the track wore him out. He had to go to school Monday morning so that was probably a good thing.

Monday morning we were going to take the motorhome back to my parents and then pick Gage up from school at 12:30. As Melanie and I were running the slides in to leave the track the bedroom slide wouldn’t go in. The guys from Tom Johnson’s Camping center came over to the track and found the problem. They had parts next day aired in to fix it so we ended up leaving the motorhome with them. We grabbed some clothes out and hurried to Gage’s school. We made it at 12:29 just in time to pick him up. He was pretty surprised to see us at his school. We all went to lunch and then to my sisters house where Gage and I got to play all afternoon. We played on the swing set, drag raced on the track I got him for his birthday and goofed off the rest of the day.

That night we all went out to dinner and Jimmy Wingo from my team last year came to Mooresville and went out to dinner with the family. I got up the next morning and drove to my sister’s house to pick Gage up and take him to school. It was pouring down rain Tuesday so Gage had to get his “Cars” umbrella and we headed off to school. Mel and I went to get our motorhome and then got back to my parents house so Gage and I could play in the afternoon. We had done some shopping that morning and I picked up a couple of truck and trailers with some hot rods for us to play with that afternoon. We loaded and unloaded the diecast cars all day. We played basketball, baseball and just about everything else you can think of. My mom cooked for all of us and my sister and husband came over for dinner (haven’t had mom’s home cooking for awhile).  After dinner we said our goodbye’s and told Gage we would see him in a few weeks at Richmond. My goal at Richmond is to be able to take Gage out on stage with me at driver intros.

Melanie and I hit the road early Wednesday morning headed for Dallas. I was a little concerned with being able to get enough fuel to get to Dallas. It is in short supply on the east coast after the hurricane last week. At the first two stations we stopped at they were limiting you to only 25 gallons of diesel. Finally I tricked the pump by using two different credit cards and we were able to fill up. We stopped a couple hours outside of Ennis last night and slept for awhile. We went to the truck was this morning and then got parked at the track about 10. We have enjoyed a nice relaxing day at the track today. We just got back to the motorhome tonight. I had an autograph session at the Wal-Mart in Ennis, and then we went out to eat a local Mexican restaurant. After that we decided to bowl a couple of quick games at the bowling alley in Ennis then got some groceries and headed back out to the track calling it a night. Now we sit here watching TV and writing blogs.

That’s it for now. The weather looks great for the weekend. We have the Air Force on the car for the next four races so I’m hoping with the support of the armed forces with us we can turn things around.

TJ