It seems like it’s a rare day when everyone here at Kalitta Motorsports is home at our shop in Michigan. All four teams are here busy preparing for our race at Indy this weekend. Our next race, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, is the most prestigious event in drag racing and we are more than ready to go out and win it.

It’s the only race where we actually go to the track and test there before the race. Last week, our KB Racing team left our race in Reading, Pa., and drove straight to Indianapolis to get a couple days of testing in at O’Reilly Raceway Park. We made a lot of laps trying different things. Our crew chief, Jim Oberhofer, said we got a good baseline to begin qualifying at the U.S. Nationals. It was this test session two years ago where I got my Top Fuel license in Scott Kalitta’s dragster. The guys that helped prepare that car for me to run then are almost all of the same guys who are working on our KB team now. They have been very supportive of me throughout the last two years and for that, I am very thankful.

I came into the shop on Friday for what was supposed to be a normal work day. About lunch time, our KB team decided to take a spontaneous outing away from the shop. I had been talking all week about how I wanted to go to the batting cages so Friday afternoon we found a place in Ypsilanti. We started out just hitting the slow-pitch softballs but then we stepped up and went to the fast-pitch baseballs. It was great swinging the bat and hitting as hard as I could. I think we all needed to take some of our frustrations out. I used to play softball but I hadn’t been to batting cages in a long time. I think we’re going to make trips to the batting cages a regular thing on our team. I went again last night.

I’m excited to be running a new paint scheme on our KB Racing dragster this weekend at Indy. It’s great that we can do something to honor our United States troops. Our new dragster will is going to be mostly camouflage and it will say “Support our Troops and Families.” I’m sure it’s going to be very quick and fast. It will also have black flames on it because our team owner, Ken Black, likes all his cars to have flames. We have had the other paint scheme for 39 races. If all goes as we hope, I don’t think we will be running the old paint scheme anymore. The diecasts we had made of it sold pretty well. David Smith, who is friend of our team’s and a photographer out at that track, sent me a photo of his nephew, Nathaniel, with one of our diecast cars.

Yesterday, my twin brothers, Austin and Kevin, turned 14. I got to talk to them on the phone for quite awhile. They are preparing for the upcoming football season and their eighth grade school year. They were building ramps for their bikes when I talked to them. Austin actually went to all the races on the Western Swing this year and my team gave him some parts washing jobs. It was cool having my brother there to help out. My sister, Jessica, will turn 16 this Friday and she goes in for her driver’s test next week. I’m sure she will do great. I can’t believe she just started her sophomore year of high school. It’s a good thing for text messaging because otherwise I would never hear from her.

I’m really looking forward to this weekend. Indy is a fun race. I remember the first time I went down that track, I was driving my Dad’s 1971 Dodge Challenger in Super Gas. I was in awe and so thankful to be able to compete at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. Then in 2005, we went to the finals in our Top Alcohol Dragster. There is nothing like winning at Indy. I can’t wait to do a lot of that this weekend. I’ll check back soon.