Looking back on Daytona

Well, we got home from Daytona early Sunday morning. It wasn’t exactly the finish we were hoping for, but man those guys worked their butts off to get the car back in order to get some more points. So, I get a night at home and then we head west on Monday. The trip from Charlotte Motor Speedway to California Speedway is 2,445 miles. My co-driver Greg and I will take the southern route (route 85 to 20 to 10) to get out there. This time of year, you just never know what the weather is going to bring and it just makes sense to do that. We really don’t stop a whole lot, just each take our turns in the pilot’s seat.

Eddie and the guys will switch out the Con-way Freight cars at California and Greg and I will just stay out on the west coast while they all go back to the shop in North Carolina. That will give us some time to clean up, get groceries and just get the hauler ready for when the guys come back the following Thursday. We’ve even talked about going fishing for a few days which sounds like a good time to me.

Well, I hope you all have a good week and safe travels. If you ever see the black No. 16 Con-way Freight hauler coming though, feel free to give me a shout.

Rabbi

Catching Up on the Last Two Weeks

Hey ya'll...Bubba here. Let’s catch up on the last two weeks, which were Texas and Phoenix. First Texas ― we went to Texas this time with higher expectations, thanks to the fact that Colin has been there a few times. I also thought it would be really nice to win in his home state. It was an unusually uneventful race and we managed to drive chassis No. 43 from a 19th starting position to a fifth-place finish. The truck just kept getting better throughout the race, and Colin also managed to keep himself out of trouble. After a 16-hour trip, we were back in Charlotte. One of the biggest issues for these two races is being sure to get your 34-hour reset time in before leaving for Phoenix. Knowing I would have to leave Monday night, I put a lot of faith in my crew to get many of the weekly things turned around on the truck. Once again, they did a great job, which makes my job easier, and also gets me out on time. On the way to Phoenix, we had the displeasure of driving through the remnants of tropical storm Ida. Other than a lot of rain, and a little wind, it wasn't too bad.

Phoenix is a track where I've never really had a good finish. I thought for sure this was the year to change that. After an okay qualifying, Colin steadily picked up spots, and found himself racing in the top six for much of the night. I just knew we would run well enough to hold onto our top-five position in driver points. Then, out of nowhere, the truck lost power, and Colin limped onto pit road. Something in the engine had broken and there was no way to fix the problem. The dreams of top five were definitely slipping through our fingers. We finished 28th, and dropped two spots in the points. After looking at the numbers, we are only 25 points out of fifth place. This is definitely not impossible. A lot of things will have to go in our favor, and Colin will have to drive the race of his life, but I think we can do it. It all comes down to our last race at Homestead.

We have come so far in the points that it really hurts to drop these positions now with only one race left. We have some of the best engines in the business, but you just can't control a random part failure. Everybody has this happen, but for us, it couldn't have come at a worse time.

Next week, I'll wrap up the season, and start working towards a new year with new goals. Until then.

Stay safe...
Bubba