I would like to start off by saying thank you to all of those who have written in to the comments section.  I really enjoy reading them and hearing what everyone has to say.  I check it nearly every day, so keep on writing.  Friday was a cool day, but not too bad.  We tried a little something different in Atlanta for practice.  We normally make some race runs and when Juan is ready, we change the car to qualifying trim at the end and make a mock run.  Since Atlanta is one of Juan’s favorite tracks and the threat of rain was near, we decided to try doing a qualifying run first thing.  Juan did not like it.  In qualifying you must be on the edge and this track is so fast, you almost need to build up to make a qualifying run.  So with a little swapping we were able to make some longer runs and got in some descent practice.  Qualifying was postponed twice for rain and Juan put in a pretty good lap for a 19th-place effort.

Saturday we woke up to quite a surprise.  It was snowing when we arrived at the track.  Not much was sticking, but it was coming down quite heavily.  Amazingly with only about an hour delay we were able to complete our final practice.  It was bitter cold on the roof.  The wind was constantly blowing. I had on so many layers I could hardly move!  Thank goodness for Under Armor!  I was really concerned about the tires being so cold.  I had a bad experience while racing my own car in cold weather and crashed really bad once (and it happened getting up to speed!).  So I get a little paranoid of that every now and then, they just don’t stick very good in extreme cold.  But we made it through and had a good practice.

The race was a grueling 325-lap event.   The first half of the race was going rather well.  Even though the car was not handling perfectly we stayed well in the top 15 and on the lead lap.  I could not believe the pace that the leader would set.  On lap 40 there were about 25 cars a lap down!  No matter who the leader was, they could use all the track in no traffic and get away from everyone.  On a long green flag run many people short pitted, meaning they pitted well before they needed fuel in exchange for having new tires and the huge speed for a few laps that comes with it.  When you do this, it is a huge risk because if a caution comes out before everyone cycled through then you are a lap down.  But a bunch of people got scrambled in the order and we ended up going a lap down on the track.

We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the “Lucky Dog” to get our lap back.  But never did.  Juan was frustrated at the car and I was frustrated at other events of the race like cautions falling at the wrong times and things like that.  Even though you can’t change things like that it is still frustrating to be so close to getting a lap back, which could mean quite a few spots at the end of the day.  Racing for the “Lucky Dog” is so frustrating because you are a lap down and you are forced to race very hard against the leaders trying to hold off or get by someone.  All of the lead lap cars are mad at you for racing so hard, but you have too.  We have been on the other end of it too.  When you are a lead lap car trying to get to the lead and to have someone race you so hard and not even for position is very frustrating, but you have to realize that there is a race within the race.    The Cars of Today do not handle good at all.  Just some a little better than the others and it has the drivers very much on edge because they have a handful every lap!  So we will take a hard fought 16th place and head back home.

It is now off to my favorite track, Bristol.   Short track racing will be fun!  Talk to you after the show!

-Tab