Obviously, we had a great weekend at Brainerd. I have such a great race team. My guys worked through some problems, but it never showed on the race track. Our performance wasn’t as smooth as it appeared on TV. We had a problem before the first warm-up on Friday. From there, it was good until race day when we had a problem before the semis with the ignition. Mike is doing a great job with the tune-up, and my guys are really hustling.



After qualifying on Saturday evening, it started raining and that made me nervous. It didn’t seem to bother those in “the Zoo.” They were still partying it up. We woke up to more rain on Sunday morning. The hardest part about rain is trying to pace yourself. I just hung out and watched TV in my lounge and mingled with the fans. You just have to be ready when NHRA makes the call. You’re used to getting started at 11 a.m., so the rain takes you out of the ordinary routine. One of our loyal fans brought us a bag of peanut M&Ms on Sunday morning. Maybe that was a sign of good things to come. We finally got going just before 2 p.m. that afternoon.



I knew it would be a good day after the first round. We had a nice conservative run in the first round at 4.817 seconds. Everything looked great and it had a lot more in it. It gives me a lot of confidence as a driver when the car was running as well as it did on Sunday. It makes it easy to do my job. The car just kept getting better and better each round. We had to hurry with the 65-minute rounds, but my guys hustled and had our car to the lanes before most of the other nitro cars. To run low E.T. in the final (4.741) was the exclamation point on the day. Nick Bastiao on our team got his first win. He joined the team after St. Louis, so I was happy for him. The guys drenched him with POWERade in the winner’s circle. I really enjoyed the winner’s circle on Sunday evening. My guys took a final lap through “the Zoo” after the winner’s circle pictures. They were pretty popular with the fans.



After we took pictures, I got cleaned up and we all met at Zorba’z on Gull Lake. Snake, Forrest and Charlotte Lucas and the entire Skoal Racing team all hung out. We got back to the motor home around 11:30 p.m. I expected to be on the road by then, but I was okay with the late start. We loaded everything up and parked the motor home near they gate so we could pull out early on Monday morning and finally got to sleep around 12:30 a.m.



I got up 6 a.m. and we were on the road by 6:20 yesterday morning. We drove all day and rolled into the shop around 6:30 yesterday evening. My parents had been in Iowa, so they followed us and we parked the motor home and went to Stone Creek at the new Metropolis Mall for dinner. Our neighbors, Kevin Knock and Freddie Bear, put balloons on our mailbox to celebrate the win.

We visited with the parents until about 11 p.m. and that was about as late as I could stay up. The parents were up and gone when we woke up. They’ll be back for the U.S. Nationals in a few weeks. John Force and Gary Scelzi both called to congratulate me. Force called right around 10 p.m. I’m sure it was right after he watched Driving Force. It’s definitely nice to hear from your peers. I also got a phone call from Lance McGrew, crew chief on the No. 25 car; also, some of Jeff Gordon’s guys called. It’s nice to know the NASCAR guys watch us.



I got up this morning and we had to run up to the Northside to pick up our car that was at the dealer for service. Then, it was back to typical household chores. We had laundry to do and I mowed the lawn. We’ll leave early tomorrow afternoon for Memphis. It’s a seven-hour drive from Indy. We have some press work to do in Indy. Hopefully, this winning thing becomes more of a routine. It’s a lot of fun!