I’m at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis right now waiting to begin qualifying. I went back to our shop in Michigan for a couple of days this week. It cooled down a lot and the air isn’t so muggy anymore. I can’t say the same for North Carolina where we raced this past weekend. It was pretty hot and humid all weekend. Those aren’t ideal air conditions for racing, but our KB Racing dragster still ran great. We qualified number four and then went to the semifinals. We moved up in the points so that’s definitely a good thing. We plan to keep doing that.

Even though the air conditions weren’t ideal, the racing facility was. We love the new ZMax Dragway and are so thankful that Bruton Smith built a top-notch track for us. There were a lot of fans there. I noticed that the pits were a sea of people all day, every day. There wasn’t an empty seat in the grandstands. From what I could tell from talking to fans that came by our pit, there were a lot of people who were motor sports fans but had never been to an drag race. It was cool to see people learning about NHRA Drag Racing, the fastest motorsport on earth. I like when people show the same passion for our sport that I have.

I am learning that the people of Bahrain also share that love for drag racing. I had no idea how popular it is there. I was fortunate to be able to learn a little about their country during the NHRA Carolinas Nationals. We were representing Bahrain with a new look on our dragster. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think about representing a Middle Eastern country that I knew nothing about. However, I stayed really open minded about it, learned a lot, and found it very interesting. I didn’t know that Bahrain has been an ally of the United States for decades. They are also our “friend” and free trade partner in the Middle East. This last weekend we became the first fuel car to represent Bahrain on the drag strip in the United States. Scott Revell of Wilson Manifolds relayed a lot of information to me and was able to answer my questions. He showed me text messages from people he knows there and they seemed excited about the whole deal.

I’ve always had an interest in International relations. In college, I got a scholarship to study business/ economics in Hong Kong. It was really interesting learning about Chinese economics and Sino-US relations. I learned a lot while I was there, but I realized that the more I learn about other countries, the more I realize I don’t know. It made me want to find out more about the world. I was fortunate enough to go to Qatar and Afghanistan earlier this year. I will go to Kuwait and Iraq in December. Hopefully we will be able to race in Bahrain in the future. It’s so cool that I can make a living doing what I love, which is driving a winning Top Fuel dragster, but I can also continue pursuing my interests in learning more about the world.

I was really glad to have my Dad, Steve, and brother, Austin, at the race last weekend. They flew out to Charlotte from California. We actually got to spend a good amount of time together. We went to dinner at a steak house near the hotel after the race Sunday. It was really fun because we ran into a bunch of racing people there like Rick Stewart, the NHRA starter, Ray Donahue from DHL, Jeff Arend and the funny car team, Antron and Billy Jo Brown, Rahn and Ellen Tobler, and a bunch of others. Most of us watched Sunday night football on one big screen and NHRA drag racing on ESPN2 on two other big screens. It was a fun and relaxing way to wind down after the race.

The night before race day, I went to Sonic with Rachel Brunner and Ben Marshall from our team. I usually leave the track after qualifying, grab a sandwich from Subway, relax in my room, and go to sleep early. I changed my routine a little and got Sonic instead of Subway. Neither Rachel and or I had been there before. Usually I eat pretty healthy so I had a chicken wrap, but I couldn’t pass up those greasy tater tots and an ice cream sundae for desert. Sonic must be an ok pre-race dinner because race day ended up turning our pretty well.

Well we should be ready to warm up our KB Racing dragster. I hope we have an even better race than last weekend. Wish us luck!