Sunday at Memphis certainly didn’t turn out like we had hoped for. We qualified well, again, but I screwed up and made a mistake on Sunday. I guess I was just trying too hard. It’s just one of those things that you can’t take back, so just go on. It was only the fourth red-light loss of my career. Thankfully, my guys really supported me. I hate letting them down like that. Now, we’ll regroup and try and make up for it at Indy. I asked them if they would forgive me if we won the U.S. Nationals and they said yes. So, that’s our plan.

Since Melanie and I both got beat in the first round, we cut out of the track right after the first round of storms hit. Let me tell you, it was a quiet drive back to Indy. Neither of us had much to say. We swapped driving duties on the seven-hour ride and finally got home around 2:30 a.m. Monday. That last hour seemed like it took forever, but it was nice to sleep in our own bed.

I slept in until about 10:30 on Monday morning. I needed that after the long, hot weekend at Memphis. It felt great to sleep in. After we got up, we unloaded the motor home and took it to the shop. Then we met our friends from New Zealand, Gavin and Christine McLaughlin, for lunch at Boulder Creek in Brownsburg. The McLaughlins were gracious enough to host us last off-season for the opening of the new dragstrip in Taupo, N.Z., so we wanted to return a bit of the hospitality they showed us. After lunch, we drove around and saw all the race shops and cruised by O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Later that night, we swung by the local Marsh grocery store and bought some food to grill out, and we all hung out on the patio and for dinner. The Knocks came by and joined us, and then we walked across the street to their house and hung around the fire pit and talked. I took the McLaughlins back to their hotel around 11 p.m.

The McLaughlins haven’t seen much drag racing in the States, so they’re hanging out at testing for a few days. I picked them up and brought them out to the track today.

This is the slowest I’ve ever seen Indy testing. Many of the teams are still setting up and servicing after the extended weekend in Memphis. We’re just sitting around right now waiting for the track to come around. I sure wish the Safety Safari was here to prep the track. We’re hoping to make two runs today and another four tomorrow. We’re just refining a few things for next weekend.

PR Ted went and got the team lunch from Donato's pizza, so we all had a nice, filling lunch. It’s a gorgeous afternoon in Indy, so I guess I'll go watch some drag racing!