7/27/02
Got to thank Jimmy, John, and RJ for taking care of the car this week. Work stuff kept me hopping. I started the heat in 6th and just kept my nose clean for a few laps. Towards the end I was chasing Whitey Slavin for the lead and was able to pass him with one lap to go. The track was a little better than last week, but still pretty slick. We weren't that fast in hot laps but the car felt pretty good. Jimmy and I decided to change a couple of things to make the car drive a little bit better in traffic for the feature. We started 10th and the caution immediately came out. I restarted 8th and the caution immediately came out. I restarted 6th and passed a couple more cars and moved up to 4th. There was a wreck in front of me coming off of 4 which I was fortunate enough to miss, but Lorne got by me for 4th. We started single file and in a couple of laps Lorne and I had passed the 62 and the 22. Lorne was trying to put the move on Frankie Harper and while he did that, I snuck under him for second. A few laps later Frankie and I went side by side for a while till I was able to take the lead. And after what seemed like 20 more cautions, we finally took the checkers.
7/20/02
All right, can someone stem the bleeding please? I figured with the crummy start we had this year, I got all my DNF's out of the way. This week it was back to basics with the chassis. And the slickest track of the year is what we found. Started off warm ups with a little scare. We were only turning 6400 rpms, so something was definitely wrong. Turns out that Wayne had put the gears in the rear upside down before he returned the car to me. Fortunately we got another set of warm ups and things were much better. I started the heat 8th and the changes we made to the car to tighten it up were working pretty well. I ended up 2nd at the finish. We threw some more changes at the car for hot laps and got it a little better, and even more changes for the feature. I rolled off 11th, inside of Artie and we made it just past the start-finish line before all hell broke loose. I couldn't see what started it, but the car in front of me was completely sideways in an instant. I hopped on the brakes but got turned around from the rear. We all slid down the track a bit, getting hit pretty hard 3 or 4 times before it was all done. Unbelievably I was able to pull away, and better yet, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the car. When it was all said and done, I lined up for the restart 12th. I'm thinking this is my lucky day, right? A few laps later I try to pass the 52a on the outside of 2 and get run into the wall. I drove away from that, only to get caught up a few laps later down in turn 1 in another wreck. This time we headed to the pits with a mangled front end and a right front flat. I returned to the track and started moving up through the field with a pretty wounded car. On lap 12 I made a move in 3 on the inside of the 22 and something broke in the suspension causing me to run into little Watson pretty hard. On the way down the frontstretch afterwards it was impossible to keep the car in a straight line and I pulled in.
7/13/02
I'm gonna keep this one short. No heat races this week, the track put on one of their "special" shows for the fans, which meant 2 B mains and a Black flag race for the top 6 in points. I started 5th and got to 4th before I got the boot. The car was pretty good, a little on the tight side, but I thought we would be okay for the feature. In addition to the above, we swapped places with the Pro Stocks and started the evenings festivities. The track was actually a little better than I thought it would be, and out little tight condition turned out to be a little too tight. I rolled of in 16th and the things got pretty hectic in a hurry. On lap 3 I got shoved up into the marbles in 3 & 4 and started taking off for the wall. I did manage to avoid the wall but spun in the process. Back to the rear I go. By lap 11 I was up to 8th and that was all she wrote, that's where I finished.. I had a power steering problem, and it felt like the engine was off a little bit. So we made plans to get the motor to Dan, but ended up letting Wayne borrow my car to run Devils Bowl because he popped his motor on Friday. He started 13th and ended up 4th, not bad against a field of 358's. We got the motor to Dan later Monday and it looks like we were about to have a problem. Hopefully we'll have it buttoned up before Saturday.
7/6/02
I'm thinking there must have been a full moon out tonight. We were wicked good in warmups, but the track didn't last much past that point. I started last in the heat and was somehow able to miss most of the ridiculous stuff going on in front of me. The track was very slippery in the middle and the top was real dusty. The car was pretty good though, and we won the heat. Jimmy decided it was time to try some different stuff tonight, so we made a couple of large changes to the car before the feature. I somehow, by the grace of God, managed to line up for the feature where I belonged, don't ask me how. We didn't get past the second turn before the caution came out. I had passed about 3 cars, but for some reason we went back to the original start. We restarted the race and I went up top. A little too up top. 2 or 3 laps into it I got a little high in 3 and 4 and slapped the wall pretty good, losing a few spots. I followed up that stellar performance with one of my patented spin outs a couple of laps later. I was at the bottom of 1 making a move on the inside of the 61s and had to check up when he cut to the bottom. I was only about halfway up on him, and when I hit the brakes I had a little too much rear bias and around I went. No 360's tonight, I was able to keep the car pretty much on the bottom, and the rest of the field managed to miss me. So now with 5 laps down I'm about 24th. It wasn't long after that we went to single file restarts, which was actually a good thing. I saw some of the worst driving ever, at least with single file restarts we would have half a chance to get some laps in. But even with that, the guys managed to wreck some serious cars. Anyway, to make a long story short, I missed some wrecks I should have been in, got together with Ryan Larkin at one point, and damaged the car enough that I could feel something was up. I decided to stay out and by the end of the feature got back up to 5th.