The last time I wrote to you was when I was flying to Phoenix. That was almost exactly a week ago and now I’m at the Phoenix Airport waiting to fly back to Detroit. We missed our flights on Tuesday because we decided to stay in Phoenix for two days of testing instead of just one. To be honest, there’s nothing else I would have rather done with my time. I get to enjoy the Arizona sunshine a little longer and get to make some more laps in dragster.
Testing is a lot of extra work for my team. I’m sure the guys were hoping to be on their way home by Tuesday. They have families back in Michigan to get back to. Both Mac and Chris have new baby girls, Reece and Kylie, who are nearing four months old. I’m sure they can’t wait to be back home. However, everyone agreed Monday night after one day of testing they we needed to stay and run some more. If you have been following the progress of our team at all over the last year, you know how dedicated Jim O, Troy, Jason, Scott, Chris, James, Mike, and Mac are. I’m thankful for them and I know all their hard work will pay off soon.
We didn’t have such a great day of racing at Firebird Raceway. None of the Kalitta Motorsports cars advanced passed the first round. That has not happened since I joined this team in 2005. All four teams tested on Monday and I’m sure we will turn things around go rounds in Gainesville. Our KB Racing teammate, Jason Line, did go to the finals so that was the one good thing about this race.
I’m over Phoenix and already looking forward to Gainesville. I’ve been here since last Wednesday. As drivers, our jobs are never boring and never ordinary. On Thursday before the event I participated in a different sort of “drag race.” I went to Scottsdale for an in-studio radio interview at The Edge 103.9. The producer decided he wanted to have a foot race against me. Since I’m a drag racer, he decided we should dress in drag. I had to wear a suit, tie, and his heavy, sweaty boots that were way too big for me. He wore a dress and high heels. We took off together and ran for about 100 feet. He tried to leap across the finish line to get ahead of me, but I beat him anyway. He went skidding across the pavement and almost got tangled up in my feet. Then he tried to say I pushed him down. As quick as he was to come up with a lame excuse for losing, he really could be a drag racer.
It was a fun radio show and I’m glad they invited me. I did some other pre race things to help promote the event. We had a fan fest on Wednesday night at the Arizona Mills Mall. Then I got to the track at 7 a.m. on Thursday for a TV interview on the local news. I raced a reporter in the POWERade funny car simulator. I had never done that before. It’s pretty tough to drive those things. I can see why fans like driving them. Some members of the local media came out for lunch at the track on Thursday afternoon. Then J.R Todd, Hot Rod Fuller, and I raced them down the track in Pontiac GTOs.
Next time I write to you will be from Michigan. I’m going to miss the sunshine but it’s in the mid-30s in Michigan so it’s like a heat wave there. I’ll be doing various odds and ends over the next couple of days and I don’t have anything exciting planned for the weekend but I’m sure I’ll come up with something to ramble about in my next blog.