I am finally back in town for a few days and thought I better sit down and catch up on my blogging before I have to leave town again. For those of you that haven't been reading my latest blogs, I have been helping out the Pro Stock teams of Johnny and Shane Gray for the past few weeks. With two brand new Jerry Haas Pontiac GXPs, a new engine program headed by engine builder Joe Hornick, and the announcement of two new sponsors, there have been lots of things to get excited about around Gray Motorsports and I am happy to be involved.

As Toni explained in our previous blog, the weather in Las Vegas for our first test session was far from optimum testing weather and our runs were limited. Nevertheless, we headed to Pomona excited to see how we would stack up against all of our competitors. We were not disappointed at all. Shane qualified 14th and Johnny qualified 12th, Shane won his very first round of eliminations, ended up No. 8 in the Full Throttle points and both cars received a miniature "Wally" for Best Engineered cars. How cool is that?

While many of the teams packed up and headed to Phoenix, we packed up and headed back to Vegas for a couple more days of testing. The weather was great this time and we spent two more days experimenting with different combinations on both GXPs. With two great drivers and a talented crew we didn't have any trouble coming up with things to try. Early Thursday morning, we headed to Phoenix ready to start qualifying all over again.

Well, the weekend in Phoenix was emotional and challenging, to say the least. With extremely difficult track conditions (especially for the Pro Stock cars) and intermittent rain showers off and on during the weekend our qualifying attempts were limited to just three. Shane did end up qualifying in the 15th position but Johnny missed the field by .16 of a second. Not the results we had hoped for. But we all know that things could always be worse.

Sunday brought more rain and more deterioration in track conditions. The Pro Stock cars raced only one round of eliminations before determining that the track was unsafe to continue any further. The fuel cars tried another round. A car crashed, the driver walked away, but this time others weren't so lucky. There are inherent risks involved with any sport, especially motorsports, and as a veteran driver, I accept that fact every time I strap myself in my race car or stand on the starting line. Though the circumstances of that day were beyond anyone's control it is still very difficult to understand when bad things happen to innocent people. Sunday was a very sad and tragic day for the entire racing community and our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those involved.

Early Monday morning Toni and I flew to Raleigh (where I had left my Blazer) and then drove the three hours home. I have spent most of the week analyzing graphs and working out a plan for another pre-Gainesville test session. The team plans on testing at Speedworld in Orlando for several days and then head to Bradenton for a few more days of testing. With the announcement of Tire Kingdom as the major sponsor on Shane's car as well as the title sponsor for the race, we are excited about getting to Gainesville.

Well, I am going to close this blog and head down to the race shop to get pick up some things to take with me for the test session. It will certainly be a busy couple of weeks but I know that me, Johnny, Shane and the entire Gray Motorsports team is excited to get back on the track. I will make sure that we keep you updated on how things are going so make sure that you check back soon!