I spent my Memorial Day weekend totally immersed in everything NASCAR. The Coca-Cola 600 was on Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. I spent the whole week leading up to the race doing various things in and around Charlotte. There were tons of pre-race festivities, so a group of other NHRA teams and I used that as an opportunity to promote NHRA Drag Racing. It was a lot of fun. It was also very productive from the business side of things. My cousin, Michelle, was there, and then on Saturday Rachel Brunner, our team manager, flew in with our KB Racing crew chief, Jim Oberhofer. I got a good photo of Michelle, Rachel, and me at the race.

As a part of the pre-race ceremony, I got to go up on stage and get booed in front of thousands of people. That’s because I went up there with Kyle Busch to present him a check for $6,000. Mahle Clevite asked Pro Stock Motorcycle rider, Peggy Llewellyn, and me to give him the award. It was actually for his engine builder at Joe Gibbs Racing who built the engine for the winning car at the previous race. It was cool that they asked Peggy and me to do that.

I could go and on about all the cool things that went on over the week, but actually one of the best parts was when we ran into a member of the U.S. Special Forces, Kirk Haven, and his fiancé. I met Kirk when I was in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, for the “Racing Heroes Tour” with NASCAR drivers Randy LaJoie, Ricky Craven, and Jeff Fuller. During our tour, back in February, we went to visit the Special Forces living area on the Jalalabad military base. I talked about it in a previous blog. We had dinner with Special Forces guys. Then they took us around and showed us a lot of the military equipment that I didn’t even know existed. Kirk was especially talkative with us. He took a lot of time to explain things to us and show us around. He definitely gave us a “VIP tour.” I’m a big fan of his and all the guys he works with, so I had my picture taken with him at the race.

We met a lot of people in Afghanistan, and I know they live a very dangerous life. I don’t expect to see any of them again. Every time I hear about something bad happening in Afghanistan, I can’t help but wonder if it’s someone I met when I was there. That’s why it was so cool to run into Kirk. It sounded like he and his group survived some pretty scary stuff, but they will be back in the States for awhile. I was glad to see that he was getting the “VIP tour” at the race, especially on Memorial weekend. Hopefully, he and his fiancé will come to our NHRA event in North Carolina in September, and we can give them VIP access at our race.

Speaking of that event in September, we did a lot to help promote it. I talked to a lot of people about it, and it seems like there’s a lot of enthusiasm about NHRA and a lot of people already planning to attend the inaugural race at the new zMax Dragway. On Saturday night, Jeg Coughlin, Matt Smith, Antron Brown, and I got to promote the race and our sport in front of a large NASCAR crowd that had gathered in downtown Charlotte. We got to go up on the Coca-Cola stage, talk about our race cars, how our season is going, and then take questions from the crowd. Hopefully, we were able to spark some more interest in our sport. It was cool to be up on the very same stage where Kellie Pickler had performed the night before and Travis Tritt performed later that night.

There was a ton of people at that Speed Street festival from Thursday to Sunday. I’m not sure how many street blocks of Charlotte it takes up but it’s a lot. There were three different stages spaced out around the city with live concerts going on all weekend. A lot of the companies involved with NASCAR set up booths where they give away free products. Various drivers showed up throughout the weekend for autograph signings. Doug Herbert and I did autograph signings downtown as well. I gave away really cool posters designed by our PR rep, Todd Myers. Doug Herbert brought his dragster down there to show, and he was giving away information about his BRAKES program.

I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people over the weekend. Elizabeth Dole was at the Coca -Cola reception that we all went to on Saturday night. I made a point to go talk to her. I really admire the fact that she has been able to succeed in politics. We talked about what it’s like being a female in a male-dominated field of work. She is running for reelection as a senator for North Carolina. I invited her to our race when we come to her state in the fall.

I know I had a great time being in North Carolina. I think my cousin, Michelle, did too. She flew in from California. Michelle used to go racing with me all the time when I raced Top Alcohol Dragster with my family. She always helped out a lot, whether it was cooking for the team, backing me up after the burnout, or helping me sell apparel. She had never experienced a weekend of that type of racing, so I’m glad she got to go. She had to sit through a lot meetings and autograph sessions, but she got to do some fun stuff too. We went to some great restaurants, and we caught some of the concerts downtown. I got her picture in front of Travis Tritt when he played Saturday night.

Well I could go on and on about everything we did there, but I better end here. I need to do some laundry and get my suitcase packed for our race in Kansas this weekend. We are leaving in the morning. All that NASCAR racing really made me miss my race car. I can’t wait to get back into my dragster and continue our winning ways. Wish us luck!