Hello from Firebird Raceway in Arizona! I can’t tell you how glad I am to be here right now. It was great to get back in the car on Friday. Furthermore, it’s great to see the sun and be out enjoying it. I am a self-professed sunshine addict. Unfortunately, we didn’t see it at all on Sunday because it rained a lot the entire day but that just gave us a chance to get refreshed and ready to make more runs this week. We have been putting down some great numbers. My KB Racing team, led by Jim Oberhofer, has been doing an awesome job.

First and foremost on our minds is Doug Herbert and his family. We heard about the terrible tragedy of his two sons on Saturday morning. His team is pitted across from us here at the track and we’ve seen a lot of well wisher bring flowers. I think after hearing the news, we all took some time to call our own families. Our most heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Herbert family.

I wrote that part of my blog earlier this week while we were still at Firebird Int'l Raceway. We were there from for about six days. Now I’m back in Michigan and probably won’t see the sun again until I go to Pomona next week. A snow storm hit right after we returned. It’s a great excuse for me to stay home and enjoy some down time.

Hopefully, you have seen the results from testing so you know that we did well. What you may not know is that we are operating with some changes to our team. It’s not easy for any team to adjust to changes. Everyone develops a routine and certain level of trust. We have some new members to our team this year so it takes a little bit of extra time and effort to get the routine down and to get everyone on the same page. It seems like to me everyone is getting acclimated pretty well.

One change is that this is the first time our KB team will not have Scott Finnis at the races anymore. He is still very much a part of our team, but now he stays at the shop full time to focus on learning and operating the CNC machine. He used to do cylinder heads. We now have Tom Davis doing cylinder heads on our car. He is from New Jersey and used to work on Scott Weis’ team. Jerry Cook will also being doing cylinder heads on our car. We stole him from Grubnic’s team. (The picture is of Jerry and Tom working on the heads.) Jerry also buckles me in and backs up the car. We also hired Colby Campbell, of Las Vegas, to be our clutch helper.

Normally Colby will be helping Mac Savage who is in charge of the clutch department. (I took a picture of Mac, left, showing Colby how things work.) Unfortunately Mac broke his collarbone a couple of weeks ago in a non-work-related accident. He was at the shop every day in January even though he had the break. He showed us the x-rays and you could definitely see where the bone was completely out of place. Mac has an unbelievable work ethic and you never would have known he was injured. He even came to the Phoenix test session for the first couple of days. He then flew back to Michigan for his scheduled surgery on Monday to fix the injury. It was painful seeing him work through the pain. We did not encourage him to do this. In fact, they tried to make him to stay home and rest, but he just wouldn’t have it. I do have to admit I was glad he was there. As a driver, you have to really trust the people on your team. I don’t do a whole lot to prepare the car but I know a lot goes into making something go over 330 mph so I have to put my trust in my teammates who prepare the car.

Fortunately for me, I have been working with the same core group since I began my Top Fuel career. I realized after Mac left, that every single lap I have made down the track in a Top Fuel car, Mac has been on my team. The same can be said for Jim Oberhofer, Troy Fasching, and Chris Glass. Mike LaJoice wasn’t with us the first year but he was last year. All those guys were together on Scott Kalitta’s dragster for a couple years before the KB team was added. They all work really well together and I’m thankful for them. Mac will be back with us at Pomona. His surgery went well and he is on the road to recovery. I think the biggest challenge for him is relaxing long enough to let it heal correctly.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good weekend. I know I’ll be relaxing this weekend and enjoying some down time before the season begins.