Tuesday morning, I boarded the plane from dark, dreary, and rainy Detroit and walked off the plane to be greeted by warm, sunny Southern California. I didn’t get away without voting first. I made it to the polls in Michigan when they opened at 7 a.m. so I could vote for the first time as a Michigander. (Sorry no voting photos. I tried to take a blog picture at the polls but they definitely frowned upon that, even more so than the Wawa employees…I really thought the blog camera was getting confiscated for sure this time). It’s kind of difficult to know which way to vote since I haven’t spent a lot of time in Michigan and am not real familiar with the issues. TV and radio has been annoyingly filled with messages trying to influence my vote but I don’t see how anyone can decide on a candidate based on an information-lacking 30-second sound bite. I’ll save you from too much of my ranting about that. I did a little research on my Sunday off last weekend and decided how I would vote. I ended up crossing party lines for some of the candidates. I’m just glad that the election is over, and we won’t have to hear all the annoying ads again for awhile.

I’m also really glad to be in SoCal. It wasn’t very long ago that I was living in Huntington Beach. That was the first place we went after we flew into LAX. We walked around on the pier and ate some really good Hawaiian food. Ellen Cobb, the Kalitta Motorsports activities/hospitality coordinator lives in HB and runs the Kalitta Motorsports West office in HB. She went with us and she and I bought matching hats to wear. I doubt we will be brave enough to wear them at the track.

I used to go to 24 Hour Fitness all the time when I lived in SoCal. I really like their kickboxing classes so I decided to go to a class on Wednesday morning. The class was a great workout but I was quickly reminded that I really stand out because I definitely don’t wear enough makeup for gyms in Southern California.

In some ways it seems like we were just here for the Winternationals in February and in some ways it seems like that race has been a long, long time ago. I feel like I have gained so much knowledge since then. I’m feeling more confident than ever in the car so I’m really looking forward to this race. We want to end the season on a high note for sure.

I intend to have fun and enjoy the last race of 2006. There’s a lot at stake with this race for our entire team. Doug Kalitta and the Mac Tools team want to maintain the number one spot in the POWERade points to take home their first championship. Our KB Racing team needs to maintain our spot in the Top 10. We are a little shorthanded at this race for some different reasons. One reason is that Mac Savage and his wife, Heidi, just had a baby girl last weekend. Congratulations are definitely in order for them. Also, Chris Glass, and his wife Lisa are expecting their first baby any hour now. Chris is here but he may have to fly out at any time and Mac won’t be arriving until Friday. Everyone has to do extra work and do what is needed to get done. I took a picture of Rahn Tobler, Jon Oberhofer, and Jim Oberhofer mounting tires. It’s not often you see crew chiefs doing this task. Everyone will work together to get the job done …today, and for the whole weekend. Wish us luck.