It’s been a tough couple of weeks for our team. I could bring up all the reasons why it was tough, but there’s no reason to dwell on the negative so instead I’ll tell you about the best things that happened.
Our KB Racing team qualified for our 30th race out of 30 that we have entered. It’s becoming more and more difficult just to make the 16-car field at every race and our team is proud to have made the show at every event. In St. Louis, we only had two qualifying sessions because of rain and we went into the final session not qualified. As always, I have a lot of confidence in my crew chief, Jim Oberhofer, and the rest of my team. Being in that position makes my heart beat a little faster when I pull up to stage the car because I know any little thing can go wrong and we don’t get to race on Sunday. The car launched and felt pretty good. I could almost breathe a sigh of relief by the time we made it to half-track without pulling the tires loose or shaking. I was pretty sure by that point that if I just kept the car in the groove we could make the show. It actually felt like it took forever to get to the finish line. We ran a 4.71 but it was enough to get us into the 13th position.
As most of you already know, another good thing that happened within the last couple of weeks is that we brought Dick LaHaie in as a tuning consultant. I have a lot of respect for him, as does our whole team. I was first introduced to Dick-o, as he is commonly called, in 2005 when I was at the Seattle race with my family running our Top Alcohol Dragster. I talked to him for a good amount of time and he gave me some driving advice. At that time he was tuning for Larry Dixon but he told me some stories about how he helped Scott Kalitta out with his driving in the mid-‘90s when he worked at Kalitta Motorsports and they won two back-to-back championships. Talking to Dick-o in 2005, I never would have thought that just two years later I would be teammates with Scott Kalitta and Dick-o would be a part of our team.
On Saturday night in St. Louis, I went dinner with Dick-o, Jim O, Jon O, Dave Grubnic, and Rick Fischer. Grubnic and I got to listen to them reminisce about old times. Jim O and Jon O worked for him for five years and they had a lot of great stories. I could have sat and listened to their stories all night. We did a lot of laughing.
There wasn’t much laughing or smiling going on the next day. We had a tough day at the track. However, I know we will turn our season around. We have moved up in points but as of right now I’m really thankful for the new points system. It’s very feasible that we could still win the championship. We aren’t in the top eight right now, but I’m confident that we can get there within the next 10 races. My team is a championship-caliber team and our points position right now does not do them justice. They are a relentless and hard-working group of guys.
That’s why I was glad to hear that they took a much deserved day to relax and have some fun. In between the Atlanta and St. Louis race, my team spent a day at the lake, which was another good thing that happened within the last couple of weeks. I can’t even imagine them relaxing and lounging on the water because every time I see them, they are busy working, but that’s what they did. The rented a boat, a couple of jet skis, and had some fun. Trucker Mike was too stubborn to wear sunblock so he got a sunburn that was redder than my light in Atlanta second round. Other than the sunburn, it sounded like they had a much deserved good time.
After being out on the road for a couple of weeks, everyone is back here at the shop in Michigan. Hopefully some of the guys will take the weekend off to spend some time with their families for Mother’s Day. I’m not going to see my Mom but for once I planned ahead and made sure to get cards and gifts in the mail to her, my stepmom, Chris, and both my Grandma’s in California.
Our next race is in Bristol, Tenn., May 18-20. However, we are busy getting ready to take all four Kalitta Motorsports cars out to make some laps before the race. I’ll keep you updated.