I just realized it’s been a long time since I last wrote a blog. I guess time flies when you are having fun. May has been a good month for our KB Racing team. I don’t think I have ever been to the semifinals twice in one month. We went to St Louis and advanced to the semifinals, and then we went to Bristol and advanced to the semifinals. Interestingly enough, we have only lost to one car in the last three races. That’s not a sentence you here very often.

Race day was interesting at Bristol with the rain coming down all day long. I have to give NHRA, the Safety Safari, and all the people at Bristol Dragway credit for working so relentlessly to get the race finished on Sunday. The Safety Safari worked so hard drying and preparing the track. We were pitted along the fence line of the track just passed the finish line so we could see the Safety Safari going up and down the track. It didn’t look like a fun job, but I know I appreciate all their work, and I’m sure all the teams and fans do as well. It seemed like every time they dried the track, it started to rain again. I still can’t believe they got the race finished on Sunday.

The day was a bit of a test for everyone. I know for me, it was a long wait in between first and second round. After a round-win, everyone has a lot of adrenaline, and we can usually carry that with us into the second round and beyond. It’s nice to get into a rhythm. I learned that in sportsman racing. I remember racing in Super Street and winning five or six rounds in one day. It’s so much fun. I think most drivers will admit that first-round jitters are usually present, and they tend to dissipate as the day goes on. The rain made the delay between first and second round so long that it seemed like first round all over again. Not that I was complaining; I was just glad to still be still racing. Then between the second and third round, we had to do about a 55-minute turnaround. It’s cool for me as a driver to have it that quick between rounds, but obviously it’s a little tougher on my team. They were awesome though. It’s so great that I can get in the car and trust that everything is done right. I know that even though they were in a hurry everything was done thoroughly and precisely. I never take for granted that I can just get in the car and not worry about a thing.

There was a birthday on my team over the weekend. Mike Lajoice, who is responsible for rods and pistons and wheels and tires on our KB dragster, turned 54 on Saturday. We all call him “Trucker” Mike, and that’s for a reason: He has been a truck driver for a lot of his life, and he drives our 18-wheeler all around the country. Also, if Connie Kalitta needs something extra hauled for his airline at the last minute, Trucker Mike is the first one he calls. Trucker Mike has had is CDL license for a long time. During qualifying on Saturday, Dave Grubnic thought it would be funny to ask our racing announcer, Bob Frey, to announce Trucker Mike’s 61st birthday and congratulate him for just getting his CDL license. Right as we were about to start the car for our fourth qualifying pass, I heard Bob Frey say something about Trucker Mike being 80 years old. I couldn’t hear all of it because I had my earplugs in and helmet on. I heard my teammates start busting up laughing. Meanwhile, the starter told us to start the car, but everyone had to quit laughing first. I was still trying not to laugh when I rolled through to do the burnout. I guess you had to be there. We are pretty serious bunch when it comes to our jobs, so that was pretty rare for us. A little comic relief is good every once in awhile. Then we went a 4.57, which I believe was the best of the round, but Trucker Mike was a good sport about it even though our laughter was at his expense.

My team drove back to our shop in Michigan Monday after the race. I drove to Mooresville, N.C., on Monday. I’ll be here for a week doing lots of different things. I promise I will write again this week and fill you in on what’s going on down here.