Boss says I need to write a blog so I guess I better write one. Kenny Black, part owner of KB Racing, came over to our trailer on Sunday at Phoenix. He quizzed me about the tardiness of my blog. I could not come up with a good explanation. Nor could I come with any good explanation for other tardiness that has been occurring in my life. While I do not have answers for him, what I do have is confidence that no amount of sleepless nights will produce the answer. I do have hope that I can fix it. I also have this great blog picture that I took of Kenny and his Dad, Ken, sitting near the staging lanes. They were waiting for the final round at Phoenix. Kenny occasionally reads the blog but didn’t seem to like the idea of having his picture in it. However, our KB Racing Top Fuel, crew chief, Jim Oberhofer thought it was too great a picture and highly recommended that it go in the blog.

I realize I haven’t written in awhile. Now I have a lot to catch up on and I don’t know where to begin. I’m sure most of you know that that we have a great running car right now. I’m really looking forward to a great season and I am hopeful that good things are in store for our team in the next 22 races. I have to thank Ted Fasching for helping us out for the last two races. He is our assistant crew chief, Troy’s, older brother. Ted came to assist with the clutch set-up while Mac’s collar bone is healing. All the guys should be back to our shop in Michigan by now. All the truck and trailers have been gone since mid-January when they left for testing.

I am not at the shop. I am literally half a world away writing this blog right now. I’m at a place where there’s lots of sun and lots of sand. I’m sitting on the military base Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar. After the race in Phoenix, we tested on Monday. I then took the red-eye back to snowy, freezing Detroit. I went home for a couple hours to pack and re-pack. Then I flew to Washington, Dulles and caught a 12-hour flight to Doha Qatar. Iran is only about 40 miles from here. Here at this military base, I am going to undergo rigorous military training to try and improve my reaction time. Just kidding, but I have received stranger suggestions.

I’m actually here for a goodwill military tour. Pro Sports MVP develops and implements these tours with the US military. My tour is racing-themed so I’m here with NASCAR drivers Ricky Craven, Jeff Fuller, and Randy LaJoie. We took a photo in front of one of the bunker outside of our living quarters on the base. I’m really honored to be doing this. The war wasn’t really personal to me because I didn’t have any friends or family members in it. Then we ran our “Support the Troops” dragster last year and it became a lot more personal when service men and women would talk to me at races and write to me. When the opportunity to do this tour came up, I didn’t hesitate.

I’ve been in Qatar for about 24 hours now. This military base is mostly for deployed troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait to come and relax for a couple of days. It’s a much needed period of rest and rejuvenation for them. It’s been great talking to the different servicemen and women. This morning at 6 a.m. I got to go on a 2.5-mile run around the base with about 75 members of the army. We stayed in formation and did cadence calling the whole time. It’s a “morale run.” It was really cool and I was honored to be able to do it with them. They all seem very appreciative that we come over to see them. In reality, I don’t feel like I could do enough to show my appreciation to them. We will be doing a lot of meet and greets, autograph signings, and just mingling with different people. I’ve learned so much already. I really like just listening to what our troops have to say. I definitely am getting a different perspective on the war than what I’ve been exposed to before.

I’m sure I will have a lot to write about since I’m spending 10 days on this tour. Right now, I’m having trouble putting together a coherent sentence because I haven’t really slept much in the last couple days. We are catching a military C-130 plane sometime soon. We have to travel in the middle of the night because it is safer. They can’t tell us exactly what time and I’m not allowed to say exactly where we will be going but I will be somewhere in Afghanistan for the rest of the time. I will write as often I can. Talk to you soon.