Street Stock Nationals...Kind of strange being down here racing at this show rather than up in the stands watching as I have for the last few years. Actually, I am kind of suprised that I am here because these races were supposed to be last Tuesday and they got rained out and postponed until tonight. I had last week off from work to come racing and it was a bit of a scramble to get my personal day off from work switched from last week to tonight. I thought we might get rained out again tonight because there were two rain cells heading for the track as Jerry and I loaded up. As luck would have it, both cells split and one went north of the track and the other went south. As we were just getting to the point of having the track ready to go, mother nature decided that she was going to get us wet anyway. There was light rain for about 10 minutes which completely wet down the track again, so we spent another 15-20 minutes re-packing the track to get it to the point of being able to race. The weather was threatening all night, both to the north of the track and off to the east as we got to watch a pretty good lightning show most of the night.

Enough about the weather...time to race! The car is feeling pretty good in hot laps, but the track is still too wet to really be able to tell. I get to start on the outside of row 3. The top of the track is still pretty wet so I need to try to get to the bottom as soon as possible. My start wasn't all that great as I didn't have a whole lot of grip on the top of the track. I just have to be patient. Every one starts to settle in after a couple laps and I finally am able to get lower on the track to where there is some grip. The car is kind of driving itself. I don't know what Jerry did to set up the car, but I like it. I get to the entrance of the corner and the car seems to just turn in by itself and dives to the bottom for a low exit. This seems to be working great except for the fact that everyone else wants the same part of the track. About 3 laps into the race, the #28z of Chad Vant Hul decides he would rather drive thru me than around me, so he hits me in the left rear and around I go in the middle of 1 and 2. For the restart, I am starting 6th. I need to get around 2 cars to transfer straight to the A. I need to try to go high to get around #40, Tim Dann, because trying to get under him is not working and I am running out of time. The car has other ideas though. It still wants to come out on the bottom of the corner. This is rather fun though, trying to get under Tim. Anyway, a very long story shortened up a bit...coming into the last two corners on the last lap, the #66 of Darin Noyes decides that he was going to be nice to me as slide up out of the groove and let Tim and I by to finish 3rd and 4th. I transfer to the A...barely. Just a foot note. During the last couple laps, the car developed a big miss as I would go into the corners like it was running out of gas. Turns out that I had melted the plug wire boot on the number 5 plug. I had replaced that earlier in the day when I noticed that it had melted during the last race. Guess I get to do it again. OK, Jerry replaced it this time.

Jerry had a little talk with me after the heat race. I am the kind of driver that doesn't like to bump people or run over them to pass them. Jerry pointed out that none of the top drivers give way and back off nearly as much as I do. Long story short...Jerry got the point across that I need to not worry so much about wrecking the car and being a so much of a nice guy, and be more aggressive. I guess I will be like Jeff Gordon is this year! Using the chrome horn a little more. We'll see what happens.

The track is looking good for the feature, however, I have to start 13th. This is too much work. I want to start up front! Green flag!!! Things are going fairly smooth over the first few laps. I am not backing off as much and doing a little bumping. It is kind of fun, but every time I bump someone, I wince a bit. I don't like it but it seems to be working. About 5 or 6 laps into the race, I am trying to thread the needle coming out of 4 and get squeezed between Justin Selkin and someone else. This cuts down my right front tire. AGAIN! Two weeks in a row. At least this time Jerry, with the help of some other crew members get the tire changed. Not like last Saturday when the stud bent and we couldn't get the tire off. Now, much to my pleasure, I get to restart last. Green flag again! Going into the first turn, the car stumbles again. Melted the same plug wire again! I am just along for the ride to gain points from here on out. The last 4 laps really sucked. At least I finished. 16th. Not dead last. That is a plus.

Another hit in the points I'm sure. I am not going to worry about it too much. We just have to cure the melting of the plug wire boot and the cutting of the right front tire problems. The car felt the best it has since the beginning. That is very encouraging. I hope Jerry is on to something with the setups

See ya Saturday night!

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