It's finally here! Yes, boys-n-berries, it's Brainerd Week (capital letters because, let's face it, this is a BIG week for a lot of people.) And even though we've been hearing about the PGA Championship golf tournament all year, being played this week at beautiful Hazeltine National Golf Club in nearby Chaska (southwest of Minneapolis, in the suburbs), it didn't occur me until this morning that the PGA and Brainerd were going to cross paths. I don't think it will be a big problem since the major tournament is down here in The Cities, but I bet some racers are dealing with a scarcity of rental cars and a lot of hubbub at MSP... I guess this also means that Tiger Woods won't be at the race this weekend. Rats... He wasn't planning on coming anyway, as far as I know, but now we know for a fact he has something more important to do.

Speaking of Tiger, he's now won the last two weekends in a row. So, I guess it's all a matter of perspective when you analyze his chances to win his 15th major (and his 71st tournament) this week. Is he peaking at the right time? Or, did he just make his odds a bit longer, considering how tough it is to win on the PGA tour at any time, much less to win two in a row, and then finally to win a major as the third in a row. I guess Tiger will let us all know over the course of this week. If it was anyone other than Mr. Woods, I'd figure they had no chance.

And think of all the golf-loving Minnesotans who will have the chance to scream "GET IN THE HOLE!!!" exactly one microsecond after Tiger's club has made contact with the ball, even if he's teeing off on a 550-yard par five.

Well, speaking of Brainerd, that feature story I facilitated last week, with the reporter from the Brainerd Dispatch, was in today's print copy of the paper up there. The online version is here, so let's make their "hit counter" hum with activity from all over the world: Click here for the story.

That feature, written by sports writer Jeremy Millsop, ended up being very similar to the pre-race feature I wrote today, although I wrote mine before I clicked on his so I didn't realize that until after I'd sent mine out. Not similar in a word-for-word sort of way, but more just a similar theme, in that both stories are about the LRS team staying consistent as the regular season winds down. If we just stay consistent, we'll have as good a chance as anyone. To do my part, I have to consistently write about staying consistent.

As for these last three races in the regular season, it's really going to be nail-biting time for a lot of teams, and in my story today we talked about how the Countdown rankings can really be broken up into three groups right now. You have your top group of Tony Pedregon, Ron Capps, and Ashley Force Hood, and they've pretty much successfully broken from the pack. Tim is in 4th, but 135 points behind Ashley, and that's probably too many rounds to make up in three races because you know Ashley's car is too good to go out in the first round three times in a row. There are only 12 rounds of racing left, and we're seven behind her.

Then, you have your "middle group" made up of Tim, Fast Jack, BT3 (that would be our teammate, Bob Tasca III), and Del Worsham. Jack is only 30 points behind us, so that's nothing. BT3 is just 78 points behind us, so you'd like to think that if we just go a round or two at each race, he'd have to really go on a roll to catch us. Del is 95 points back from us, and that's a big hunk to overcome in three races, but it still shows just how close this four-driver group is. Basically, all four could end up in a different spot by the time Indy is over and the Countdown field is set.

Then, you have the real gut-wrenching, nail-biting, ulcer-inducing group. Let me ask you this... If, before Pomona, someone showed you a list that contained the names John Force, Mike Neff, Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan, and Robert Hight, and they asked you what segment of the Countdown field that group would make up, what would you have thought? I imagine most people would've answered "Well, I guess that's the top five." You've got the greatest Funny Car driver ever, his young protege who has a very fast car, the defending Funny Car world champion, a stout rookie with all the resources of DSR, and another Force protege who has consistently been in the top two or three since his career began. Who'da thunk that group would be the 8th through 12th-place pack? I doubt anyone. That's five great teams, and five very fast cars, fighting for three spots. Wowza... It's going to be wild.

Just before I started this blog, I got a press release from NHRA informing me that the '09 Full Throttle Awards Ceremony will be held at the gorgeous Hyatt Regency at Century Plaza in L.A. I plan to be there, in my monkey suit, and will enjoy going suitably "uptown."

Speaking of uptown, or downtown, or Beantown, or things like that, I showed a pic of Buck Hujabre and his wife Mary in the blog last week, and just today Buck fired off a few pics of him and his cast mates from Jersey Boys singing the Star Spangled Banner at Fenway Park. They look to be in full-throat, and very much enjoying themselves. If you've seen the show, you know what great performers all these guys are.

Buck later went 4-for-5 and drove in six runs for the Sox. All of that is true, except the part about going 4-for-5 and driving in six runs. He only drove in three runs. Seriously. Not.

In the meantime, Buck flew down to Charlotte today, to do some advance press work to prep the locals on the fact the show will be headed that way soon, and he spotted zMax Dragway from the plane. Here I am thinking how cool it is to see the guys singing the anthem at Fenway, and Buck's note simply ended with "I can almost smell the nitro!!!"

Side note: Yesterday, as I headed up into Woodbury on an errand, a very swift moving Ducati motorcycle flew by me and then practically skidded to a stop at a red light I'd been aware of for about 50 yards. On board said Ducati was a muscle-bound dude, wearing the following (and you'll notice the word "helmet" does not appear in the list of apparel): A skin-tight tank top, to show off those bulging muscles, nylon running shorts; and flip-flops. My first instinct was to consider the guy a moron, but then it hit me... Heck with him. I feel sorry for his family! He appears to be playing the Darwinian version of Russian Roulette, and the odds are decent that Ducati Dude will be winnowing his idiocy from the gene pool at some point in time. It's his family who will bear the weight of his own foolishness... Hope he doesn't have kids.

Today, I was back up to the same intersection but no Ducati. Who knows... I was there, however, to get my hair cut and boy was it time. It was actually time between Seattle and Sonoma, but I just ignored it during my short turnaround here at home. Then, once back, I figured I'd wait as long as possible and just get it cut before Brainerd. Now obviously this long of a wait between trims has no impact on the sparse few "Last of the Mohican" hairs on the top of my shiny head, but the back gets really shaggy. I was, indeed, feeling shaggy, like the stoner guy in Scooby Doo. Now, I'm feeling more itchy than anything else. Guess I've traded in Scooby Doo for The Simpsons, and now I'm hanging with Scratchy.

Another side note: When I got the issue of National DRAGSTER that has Antron on the cover, I was guilty of being too eager to see the Sonoma Funny Car coverage. That's a 10-yard penalty and loss of down. Instead of carefully perusing each page, I flipped ahead to the pertinent section and managed to miss two key things. For one, the fine folks at Ford had taken out a full-page congratulatory ad for Tim and our team. Way cool, and much appreciated! Secondly, my esteemed mentor mentioned me and "PR Ted" Yerzyk (who is Antron's publicist and an all-around good guy) in his "Staging Light" column. Also way cool, and I'm honored. See, it pays to do more than just flip ahead to what you expect to be the meat & potatoes of the issue. You can miss all sorts of good stuff if you're too impatient.

Yet another side note: Barb was watching one of "her shows" on TV last night, so I went downstairs to the home theater and was watching guy stuff (mega-machines, World War II history, crab fishing in the Bering Sea, home redecoration... Oops) on the big screen. About an hour later she came down to see if I was crying! What? What are you talking about??? Well, little did I know that HBO was running their documentary about the 1980 "Miracle On Ice" USA Olympic hockey team. I simply cannot watch that documentary (I've seen it maybe a hundred times) or the fabulous movie Miracle starring Kurt Russell as he absolutely becomes Coach Herb Brooks without a Kleenex. Can't do it. Sorry, I know that makes me worthless and weak, but it's just a fact.

Final side note: I've mentioned the Twins new ballpark, Target Field, many times on this blog and shown you quite a few updated webcam shots of it as they build it on the west side of downtown Minneapolis. Well, to steal Bob Frey's term "Did you know..." that it's not the only new stadium in the Twin Cities, and did you know that the other one is essentially complete and will host its first event very soon? Yup, after far too many years in the Metrodome, where they played second or third fiddle to the Vikings and Twins and had to hope their student fan base could make the long walk or short drive to the crummy indoor stadium, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers will be moving to their stupendously beautiful new on-campus stadium this year. Go Gophers!

That's it. That's all I got... I am a bachelor tonight, since Barb headed off to the east coast for a day of meetings tomorrow. It was the trip to the airport that triggered the thought about all the racers flying in this week while all the golf people do the same... Go Tiger...

See ya later this week, because you know what it is... It's Brainerd Week!!!

Wilber, out!