July 31st 2009

After my win at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals in Denver on July 12, the Mopar/J&J Racing team moved on to the last two of three events on the NHRA’s Western Swing, at Seattle and Sonoma. My wife Pam always enjoys going to downtown Seattle with all the girls and going to the Space Needle and shopping a bit. Saturday night we always enjoy going over to Don Schumacher’s spread at the track and having crab legs and seafood. Don came over and invited us to that, and the whole team went. He has a big party in the hospitality area of his pits, with fresh seafood, each year at Seattle.

Pam and I flew to San Fran for the Sonoma event with my mom and dad. The team went their own separate ways and did their own thing. Pam and I stayed at the Huntington Hotel in downtown San Francisco. They have a really good spa there. We did all the spa stuff for two days, worked out, and walked down to Union Square for some shopping. Every night we were there we ate at a really good restaurant. We ate at the House of Prime Rib, Sinbad’s, Bob’s Steak and Chop House and, of course, at Scoma’s, on Fisherman’s Warf. We met the team at Scoma’s on Thursday night and had a big seafood blast there before heading up to Sonoma for the race.

As for the races at Seattle and Sonoma, we had a boo-boo in the semifinals at Seattle and shook the tires. That’s one of the things we’ve got to get rid of. We did it at Norwalk also. Hopefully, we’re learning from our mistakes, but we should have been in position to win at Seattle. So I wasn’t very happy about that.

In Sonoma we took what I call the “A” combination I ran at Seattle and put it in my partner Johnny Gray’s Mopar Dodge. We pretty much put the “B” combination in my car, and we still qualified third and did okay, but that “B” combination is not totally perfected yet or I think we could have qualified No. 1 and beat Jeggy [Coughlin] in the second round. Johnny actually had trouble with the “A” combination in his first run, so we had to take it out and put in the “C” combination in his car. But he still qualified seventh and won a round, and gained a round on Warren [Johnson], as he tries to make the top 10 in points and qualify along with me for the NHRA Countdown to 1 playoffs.

We have a nice little break now before we head to Brainerd on Aug. 14–16. Pam and I will probably go to the lake house we own about 40 miles from our home in Greeneville, Tenn. We’ll do a little R&R—some boating, water skiing and hang out there at least one weekend while we’re off. We’ll spend some time at home, maybe ride some motorcycles and play a little golf for a week. Then it’s back to the races as I try to get my third win of the year in my Mopar/J&J Racing Dodge!

July 14th 2009

I went into Denver early on Tuesday, July 7, so I could be at Morton’s Steakhouse in downtown Denver for the NHRA press conference prior to the Mopar® Mile-High Nationals. Wednesday morning I met up with my fellow Mopar Pro Stocker, V. Gaines, and toured his rod and crankshaft shop which was exciting. I was in awe of what he had going on. It was very impressive.

Then I went to the press conference, along with Morgan Lucas and Tim Wilkerson. I was interviewed by Sara Geiger, the seven-year-old daughter of Rob Geiger, who covers the NHRA on his Web site, www.go2geiger.com. I was one of the first drivers there, and Rob introduced me to her. She’s going to follow in her father’s footsteps as a reporter. I sat down with Sara for about 15 minutes and gave her a lot of attention and time. She took like three pages of notes on the questions she asked and a few days later Rob sent me the story she had typed up herself on the computer with very little help. It was very, very impressive and I think she’s well on her way to becoming a member of the media!

My daughter Kimmie flew in from Hawaii for the race, which was nice, as I only get to see her a few times a year. My grandson, Andrew, was with her. So that made the Mopar Mile-High weekend, which is always a huge event for me, even more special.

On Thursday I took part in the Mopar Big Block Party in downtown Golden, Colo. Having all the Mopar execs and Mopar employees there is just an awesome deal, to be able to share time with them at the Block Party and talk about plans and about ways to further our program. We did a “Mopar Squares” game show on the Mopar stage, where I was asked questions and fans could either agree or disagree with my answers, and if they guessed correct they won a Mopar freebie. I had a lot of fans come up to me during the Mopar autograph signing and say how cool that was. It was fun, and stuff like that is good for me because it helps to break up the intensity of the weekend. The party was as good and as big as ever. Thanks to Jim Sassorossi, Stephanie, Andrea, Janna and everyone from Mopar who was there, because the event was awesome.

We did great in Mopar Mile-High qualifying, holding the No. 1 spot and also the Bandimere Speedway track record briefly. We planned all that and tested hard the week before the event, and to go out there and show it in the first two qualifying runs the way we did was just awesome. Friday night, when I saw Greg [Anderson] run the first six second run at Bandimere right before us, it disappointed me a bit not to be the first one to do it, because I knew we could. But like I said, I don’t think it’s the first that matters much, it’s the best run of all, and we went and kicked him right between the you-know-what, claiming the track record right after his run. The next day Mike [Edwards] went out and upped us one to take the No. 1 spot, so we knew we had some work to do.

Come race day I went into the first round a little nervous for a couple of reasons. First of all, I knew we had the car to beat, I knew we had the plan and I knew everything was there, I just needed to do my job well. And I had Danny [Gruninger] in the first round, who is a newcomer. Not to take anything away from him, but I knew I had a big cushion. It was creeping into my mind, you know, “You don’t need to red light. You don’t need to do this, you don’t need to do that.” Anytime you start to think too much, you’re going to mess up. So it was hard for me to get my focus to go up there and just do a good job. But once I got that behind me I was okay.

It was a little bit of a downer to have to race my partner, Johnny Gray, in the second round, because I know he’s having to go rounds right now, and I’m wanting him to go rounds right now, to get in the Countdown. In the back of my mind I was thinking, “Man, he needs to be the one to go on and win this thing and get some points.” It’s just a hard position for me. Then going to the semis against Rickie Jones, I’m thinking, “Darn, I’ve raced a Mopar Dodge three rounds in a row! Mopar’s going to get mad at me for beating all the Dodges.” But I got over that real quick.

In the finals I was really up for it. I owed Jason [Line] one from Gainesville, where he beat me on a holeshot in the finals. I went up there and was very calm and did my job and we pulled it out—on a holeshot, at that. From there it was great going to winner’s circle and enjoying it with the Mopar and Chrysler Group LLC execs, Jim Sassorossi and Byron Kearney. It was just an all-around awesome weekend, giving Mopar a win at their biggest event!

June 19th 2009

It’s been a while since I blogged last, but mostly I’ve just been working hard at the track. We had a little break around Memorial Day weekend. My wife Pam and I went down to Justin Humphries’ parent's place, who bought a new house near Sanibel Island in Florida. We went down and hung out with Humphries, and Dave Connolly and Jenny came along. I got in a few rounds of golf out there, which my game really needed!

After that, basically, I’ve been racing and working. We had three races in a row at Topeka, Joliet and Englishtown, so we’ve really been at it. Of course, Topeka was awesome. I got the monkey off my back and got my first win since 2007 at the Mopar Mile-Highs. I had a great celebration with my Mopar/J&J Racing team, but unfortunately my mom and Pam weren’t there, so it was a little tame. We were able to sleep in on Monday because we were only driving over to St. Louis to test, so we had an extra day of rest to recuperate from the partying!

Since then we should have had one more win. We’re still working on the bugaboos and I think it’s all going to come together right before the Countdown playoffs start after the U.S. Nationals. We’re heading to Norwalk next week, where I won the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge last year, and then on to Mopar’s big race, the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, in early July. I’ve done well at the Mile-Highs in Denver in the past, so I’m really looking forward to heading out there again and seeing all the folks from Mopar who we’ve got to know over the years.

April 23rd 2009

At the NHRA Vegas race we did a bowling gig before the event with the U.S. Bowling Congress. It was a blast. There were a lot of drivers that took part and we were all a little rusty, but we did pretty well, those of us that hadn’t bowled in years. The USBC was really good to us and treated us like professionals. They gave us a free ball, custom-fitted, with a bag and equipment. It was awesome. It’s going to make me carry my ball along on the road and do a lot more bowling.

The Vegas race itself wasn’t the greatest, as I lost to Rickie Jones in the first round. The weekend wasn’t all bad, though. Later on Sunday night my wife Pam and I got to go to the Country Music Awards show, and had real good seats up front. The show was at the MGM, where Pam and I always stay, and the people who run the hotel really took care of us. We even went to an after-party on Sunday and then stayed over on Monday night for a tribute to George Strait for being named entertainer of the decade. We were right up against the stage for that also. We got to meet almost everybody in country music. Garth, Faith—everybody you can name, all the stars, we got to be right up close with them. We really enjoyed all that, because Pam and I are big country music fans.

After that we went home and regrouped before we went to Charlotte and tested. We spent two days there and felt like we made quite a bit of progress, but we didn’t really show it when we went to Atlanta. Johnny Gray’s car was running really good, though, but he had some unfortunate luck there in the first round, hitting a wet spot on the track and getting loose. Overall, his car was running a lot better at Atlanta, which was encouraging.

Right before the Atlanta race Pam’s mother, Betty Bird, had both knees replaced. That took Pam away to take care of her mom so she didn’t get to come to Atlanta. Betty’s doing all right, though, and she’ll be able to come out of the hospital this weekend. We’re all happy about that and we wish here a speedy recovery.

After our quarterfinals appearance at Atlanta, we’re off to St. Louis next weekend. It’s my 300th race, so it’s going to be a little bit of a milestone weekend. I can’t believe I’ve been out racing NHRA Pro Stock that long. I feel like we can keep going, though, and make it to the 500-race mark.

I’m heading for a workout today, making sure I keep myself up physically for racing. It’s important to be strong behind the wheel, and also it helps mentally. I spend a lot of cardio minutes sweating, and the whole time I’m doing that I’m really just going through my head with runs, and leaving the starting line. I’m still not where I want to be, but I have to keep working at it and I’ll get there.

April 2nd 2009

We went to the NHRA Houston event last weekend, and any time we’re in Houston, we’ve got to eat crawfish. We’ve got a friend there, Kenny Anthony, who always takes the team to a great crawfish restaurant. Other than that, really all I did was go to the racetrack and race!

On Saturday morning at Houston we had a clutch malfunction and blew the clutch out, and I had to lift and didn’t get down the track. It was the best conditions ever for Pro Stock runs, and I didn’t get to make a full pass! That hurt me during qualifying, so I didn’t have lane choice during eliminations and lost in the first round. We don’t want to stumble at all, but if you’re going to stumble, now would be the time, early in the season. Now is the time to test things and get your A game in place down the stretch. But the mission for our Mopar®/J&J Racing team is always to win races, so if I go out and don’t win the race I’m disappointed.

We stayed over Monday and Tuesday, Johnny Gray’s team and mine, and tested at Houston. We didn’t really try to break the national record or anything like that. We were just going through about eight or ten parts we wanted to test. It was more an informational test than trying to fix something.

I’m in Vegas now. We’ve gotten to know the management at the MGM Grand. It’s the only place we’ve stayed for about the last 6 to 8 years. We always get a nice celebrity spa suite. And I love to play craps. That’s my game. I played last night for a few hours, and I’m up!

I’m getting ready to head to the NHRA bowling event at the Cashman Center right now. The event is being hosted by the U.S. Bowling Congress, and I’m on a team with other Pro Stock competitors. We’re taking on Funny Car and Top Fuel teams. I was a Tennessee state junior bowling champion, but I haven’t bowled much at all in the last few years. I just hope I don’t embarrass myself!

We’re looking for a rebound this weekend at Vegas. I reached the semis at the fall race last year here, and I’ve got a pretty good track record overall. I love the track, I love the facility, and I’m going to be disappointed if we don’t win.

March 19th 2009

My wife Pam traveled with me down to Valdosta where we did some testing right before the Gatornationals. We made like a little mini-vacation out of it. On the testing side, we concentrated more on Johnny Gray’s car than we did on mine. I think we proved that our hard work on Johnny’s car paid off. He qualified in the top half of the field for the first time this year at Gainesville, and in the process we learned some things on my car. My Mopar®/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T seemed to be more consistent, where Johnny’s car stepped it up a little. Combined we both made 36 runs between the two cars at Valdosta, so we worked our butts off. We tested a bunch of parts and some off the wall stuff to make our cars better.

January 21st 2009

The New Year has arrived and I’m ready to get the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock season started. We’ve been testing the Mopar®/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T this week at the drag strip in West Palm Beach, Fla., working with Johnny Gray’s team to make sure both crews jell correctly beginning at the first event in Pomona. With our new two-team set up Johnny and I will be sharing data, so it’s important we have both cars set up as close to identical as possible. It’s also critical both teams develop a good rapport with one another so we can work together smoothly come race day.

December 18th 2008

I went and tested with Johnny Gray in early December at the West Palm Beach drag strip prior to the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show in Orlando. Johnny is partnering up with our J&J Racing team next year. The West Palm facility is just awesome. They just redid it, and I heard they spent $30 million on the project. It looks it! The weather in West Palm was great and the area down there is really upscale. Just a really, really nice place to test.

The highlights of my season were definitely the K&N Horsepower Challenge win at the NHRA event in Norwalk, Ohio, where I took home the $50,000 winner’s check, and the runner-up spot at the Mopar® Mile-High Nationals in Denver was pretty special. That was the second year in a row I put my Mopar/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T in the finals at the Mile-Highs, which is probably the biggest event of the year for Mopar, my primary sponsor, so that was huge.

I’ve made the Countdown to 1 now in the first two years since the NHRA playoffs were formed, so that’s something I’m proud of. I think I struggled a bit this year as a driver, but I feel like toward the end of the year I got back in my groove, and I look forward to coming out next year in that same groove and having a little more luck.

Once the season ended, it’s a little bit of a shock to have down time. Taking the whole crew, the engine guys and everybody from my team to the NHRA banquet every year is definitely a fun time and gives everybody a few days of R&R. We also had time to visit with some of our suppliers. My dad Roy, who builds my engines, and some of the guys went out to one of the piston companies and watched some pistons being made and went to a couple of vendors that supply parts for us. We won’t just be sitting around until the 2009 season begins in February at Pomona. We’re leaving on Sunday to go testing in West Palm Beach for three days with Johnny Gray’s team, who is partnering with our J&J Racing team in 2009.

We also made another hire we’re excited about. We brought aboard Jeff Perley, who worked as co-crew chief for the KB team the first three years they won world championships. We hired him to serve as co-crew chief with Mark Ingersoll on my car and act as a consultant, along with Mark, to Johnny and Vinnie Deceglie’s teams. All three of us will run Mopar HEMI engines supplied by J&J Racing. It’s just another set of eyes and ears that we need with all three of these cars that were going to be running next year. I think it will pay big dividends. I feel confident for next year. I think our Mopar HEMI engines are solid and the team has already found a little more horsepower. I’m more excited about the coming season than I’ve ever been.

After testing at West Palm, I’m heading to the PRI show in Orlando, where I’ll be making some appearances at the Mopar display at the event. Pam and I will just hang around home with family in Greeneville, Tenn. for Christmas, and then maybe get together with Dave Connolly and his girlfriend for New Years Eve somewhere. Pam and I also might take a skiing trip in mid-January somewhere out West, then we’ll head to Vegas for pre-testing and then on to Pomona!