Our season has been over for nearly two weeks now and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on everything. As usual, I have so much to say I don’t know where to begin. I haven’t read other driver blogs, but I feel the need to write something reflecting on the season or summing up the season. As usual, I think too much. Someone reminded me that it’s a blog not a diary so I’ll just share with you a couple blog-worthy things that happened.

A lot of my family was able to make it to our last race of the year. It was great spending time with them. My wildly popular Grandpa was there. I had a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins, too. Unfortunately, my Dad wasn’t able to make it. He hasn’t been able to make it to most of the races this year because work has kept him really busy, but I don’t think I have ever raced in Vegas or Pomona when he wasn’t there. My cousins, Dee Dee, Tryston, and Elsie were there for Saturday and Sunday. It was their first time ever being at a race. They rode in the team van for our first run on Saturday. We ran over 330 mph twice that day which was the first official time went broke the 330-mph mark. My team and I decided that because we did so well my cousins had to continue to ride in the van. Once we lost, Tryston said he was bummed because he didn’t get see any racing since he was stuck in the van the whole time. I took him to the grandstands to watch the semi finals on Sunday. I got a picture with him, and my sister, Kim, who came over from Long Beach, Elsie, and DeeDee. It’s been a long time since I watched racing from the grandstands. It was kind of fun and reminded me of the old times of watching for hours on end with my family. I still wonder why everyone in the stands has to stand up.

After Pomona, our KB Racing team didn’t go straight home. We went to Camp Pendleton, the U.S. Marine base just north of San Diego. We had our car on display with the DHL Funny Car and the MTS Funny Car. Scott Kalitta and I signed autographs. He and his team started their car which drew a large crowd. It was great talking with all the people. My favorite part was meeting kids who told me they had family members coming home from Irag within the next couple of weeks. You could see the sparkle in their eyes and feel their excitement.

I also liked talking with some of the pilots who fly for the US Air Force. I did that when we got to spend a couple of hours at Nellis Air Force Base before our Vegas race for a display. The DHL funny car team went to that as well and started their car. Scott and I signed autographs for a couple of hours. It was interesting to hear how some of the pilots mentally prepare for their jobs. There was a lot going on at the base when we were there. They were staging mock wars that week so there were members of the Air Force from around the world. Even though all that was going on, our team was given a tour of the facility. We learned a lot about the Air Force Thunderbirds. They had just gotten a brand new F-16 the day before and everyone there was very proud of their shiny new plane.

I feel very fortunate that I get to meet all the people I do. I think I’ve talked about that in previous blogs. Since we started running our “Support the Troops” dragster, I’ve had the privilege of meeting a lot of military folks past, present, and future. For a lot of them, it’s hard to talk about the past, but some of them would share stories with me and I was fascinated to listen. It was really neat going to the Nellis and Camp Pendleton. I felt that we needed to do something extra to show our support besides just running the car. In my opinion, we could never do enough. I really wanted to take our car to the war zone in Iraq and start it up. I know that when we start our car in the pits, it gets people fired up. I wonder if it would help some of our troops fighting in the war to hear and see a Top Fuel dragster in person. Connie Kalitta actually had the same idea that I did. We talked about it a couple of months ago. If anyone could make that happen, it’s Connie but we’re not sure if it’s possible. I’m just glad we had the opportunity to have a specialty dragster like this. Our team owner Ken Black said that he also received a lot of positive feedback from running this paint scheme.

It’s the off season but we are staying fairly busy. I keep you updated as often as possible.