Whew... I have no idea where to start, little idea how to write about it, and almost too many ideas to bring into focus, but here I go, diving into the deep end like a swimmer on a mission. I have more to do today than I have time to do it, however, so I'm afraid this might not be the longest blog I ever wrote... I just have to write fast!

First of all, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who posted notes on my Facebook page, or sent emails and text messages. By the time I got to this hotel room late last night, I had well over 250 emails in my in-box, and then a similar amount of new ones this morning when I finally got up, so I'm going to have to apologize right up front if I'm not able to send a personal note back to everyone. I'd love to, but the next couple of days are going to be a bit nuts, too, so I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do in that regard. Right now, my main focus (if you could call my foggy brain focused at all) is this blog, since it reaches the greatest amount of people all at once.

As I type, I'm in my room at the Holiday Inn by the Sarasota Airport at noon at Monday. I could've slept until Tuesday. Somehow, when I plotted out this whole trip and this visit to other parts of Florida after the Gatornationals, I actually didn't factor in winning the race and then going to dinner with the team afterward, nor did I speculate that with a 6:00 a.m. departure from the hotel on race day and the loss of an hour's sleep due to the start of Daylight Saving Time, I'd be operating on fumes by the end of Sunday. I got here at 12:30 last night, still amped up from the win and too many Diet Cokes, but it was probably around 3:00 a.m. when I fell asleep, and my brain still hasn't fully engaged yet on this beautiful Monday.

My plan today is to meet up with my sister Mary and her husband Lonnie, and the first mission is to go see my mom. Emotions are emotions, whether they're incredibly positive or tougher to take, so like the last 24 hours this day will continue to be emotional for me, in all ways. We know my mom will not be with us much longer, and with her Alzheimer's we've lost real contact with the mother we all knew and loved for the vast majority of our lives, so I'm here to make a visit and perhaps say goodbye. On the positive side, Mary is my closest sibling (both in terms of age and attachment, since we grew up together) and it will be great to spend a day with her and Lonnie, along with my niece Kim. There will be laughs, for sure, and valuable time spent with people who mean the world to me.

Heading back to yesterday, however, let's just go back through a Sunday to remember. I'll never forget it, and I hope I have the writing capabilities to put it into some sort of coherent story for you. Maybe I need another cup of coffee before I try this...

In the photo gallery, I'll start with the shot I took of our pit area right after I arrived at the track. I think it was about 6:40 on Sunday morning, and I know I took a similar photo last year but the chance to catch a glimpse of a professional Funny Car pit area before sunrise is too good to pass up. I'm also amazed at my Nikon's ability to give me photos like that, with no flash in a darkened world. Pretty neat stuff, and you can just see the first pinkish glow in the eastern sky as dawn nears on race day. No wonder I was so tired when I got here last night!

After a long and slow morning, the first round finally happened and we were all pretty excited about the day. We ran so darn well in qualifying, making successive laps of 4.13, 4.12, and then 4.11 with our new car, we surely hoped we'd have a shot at getting our first round win in the bank, but with my old buddy Jeff Arend as the opponent we knew we'd have our work cut out for us, and after we slipped to the 9th spot on Saturday, we also knew we wouldn't have lane choice.

Before we ran, I walked over to the far side of the starting line and found a golf cart sitting there, in the area where crew members are allowed to stand. I took a seat on the golf cart and watched all of Top Fuel and most of the Funny Car class, since we were going to be the 8th and final pair in round one. All of us prefer to go early in the round, even first if possible, and going last drives us a little nuts in a lot of ways. By that time, you just want to get out there and race, to see how it's all going to turn out, but you have to watch seven other pairs go ahead of you. Then, if you do win, you have the shortest turn-around time in the class... As the 8th and 9th qualifiers, though, you can only take what's left after the top seven have picked their slots, and it's almost always the last pair.

Finally, we got up there and ran Jeff and although it wasn't a perfect lap, we went A-to-B and got our first win light of the year. As I said in my post-event report, at least we knew we weren't going to finish the 2010 season 0-23! From that point forward, the day now seems like a blur. It was a mad dash back to the pit, lots of updating, writing, and internet posting, a madhouse of power tools, frantic crew work, and cheering fans, and then a blast of nitro from the warm up. Before you knew it, we were pushing the car out of the pit and heading back up there again, trying to even our season record at 2-2 against Matt Hagan, who had qualified No. 1 by running enormously fast. Tim, however, had that devilish look in his eye, because he was falling quite madly in love with his race car and he knew we had a chance to win some rounds.

For me, it was all about routines. Back to the same golf cart, following the same procedures. This time, we really ran great and the 4.09 we put on the board was not only enough to advance another round, it was our best lap of the year so far. Back to the pit, same updates, same routines, everything the same. Before the day started, we knew we were on opposite sides of the ladder with Bob Tasca and our teammates next door, and we all had hope, but by the time we had each advanced to the semifinals it all began to seem possible. Could we actually meet up in the final round for the first time? It wasn't going to be easy... We had to beat Tony Pedregon and they had to take out Ron Capps.

Back to the line, back to the same golf cart, and back to the all the routines we all follow. Jeff Jacobs, our talented and illustrious Car Chief, and I do a double-slap and fist bump behind the car, right after we've pushed it to the water box, then Nick Shaff and I do a fist bump before we push the car forward to get it rolling for the burnout. Krista Wilkerson then hands me the video camera, Finkster and I then do our fist bump, and then Cole Nance finds me after he's moved the starter cart off to the side of the track, and when he does we bang shoulders so hard I think I've jammed a few vertebrae... Then, I stand behind the car to shoot the video.

We beat Tony, to advance to the final (from 0-2 we were now 3-2) and I stayed up there to watch the Tasca boys take on Capps. They won too, with a huge lap, and we all shook hands and headed back to the pit for our all-Ford final.

Same routines, same everything. Update our stats, update the dry- erase board, update Twitter, update Facebook, update everything. Back to the line, back to the same golf cart, back to the fist bumps, the shoulder bangs, and everything else. As I stood behind the car, watching Tim stage through the viewfinder, I actually thought "Well, here we are. In about four seconds we're all either going to be going nuts, or we'll be shaking hands with the Tasca team and congratulating them. Isn't it odd I can stand here and think this, not knowing how it will turn out but knowing it's about to all happen in one huge moment?" Bizarre to be standing there thinking that, as the yellow bulbs came on. True though. I actually thought all of that, while watching through the camera.

Tim took off, I held the camera as still as possible to keep him in the frame, and then the world went crazy. Holy cow, we won the Gatornationals!!! Amazing... Absolutely amazing.

We all went certifiably crazy for a bit, then headed to the top end to get the boss. After that, a whirlwind of interviews, hugs, handshakes, laughs, and hats. Lots of hats! We got back to the Winner's Circle, Tim did some interviews there, then up to the Media Center to do more press work, then finally back to the Winner's Circle to take photos and do the "hat dance" for all our wonderful sponsors. We had event hats, we had Full Throttle hats, we had Tire Kingdom hats, Ford hats, Summit hats, Valvoline hats, and Goodyear hats. We had a lot of hats. And we loved wearing them and cheering for the cameras. There's really nothing like it... Again, absolutely amazing.

After that, we finally headed back to the pit and while the guys put the car away I tucked myself into my little corner of the hospitality area to write my report. Just as I finished, the guys finished and we were off to the Gainesville Ale House for a dinner and celebration with all our teammates on the Tasca side. We ate, we laughed, we looked at Marc Denner's iPhone and his seven pages of apps. Wings, burgers, salads, fish, steak, you name it... A good time was had by all, including most of the Force team who were also there.

The coolest part was the fact the race was on ESPN2, and it was on most of the screens in the Ale House so we got to watch it and re-live it again. When we won, the Force team applauded for us, and that caused the rest of the restaurant to look over in our direction, then up at the screens, then back at us, and before long the whole place was clapping. How cool is that! One more time, the whole thing was absolutely amazing.

At 9:00, I got in my car and headed south. At 12:30, I was in this room. Now, 12 hours later, I need to wrap this up and go see my sister and my mom. Tomorrow, down to Fort Myers to see the Twins play with the Finkster. Wednesday, back up to Jacksonville to fly home. Hello Florida!

Thanks again, everyone! You know what? It was absolutely amazing!

Wilber, out!