The life of a Tire Changer...

You know, Paid 800 to 1000 dollars for one days work doesn't seem like that bad of an occupation. That is, until you realize you're working, and placing your life on the line at every turn, with vehicles traveling around you at 55 mph, and the pressure of making 10 lugnuts go off and on in about 14 seconds. The glory of celebrating a win is a great thing, but the hammering and beating on a car in the garage must be a horrible thought.

Here's probably the thing thats most telling about the occupation, There is a teacher at my school, he works for a cup team. He had plenty of reason to celebrate yesterday, and a couple of other times this year. You know where he was this morning? Thats right, at the school teaching a class. Here he comes off the high of a great race, and he's placed right back at a regular job the next day. Talk about the ultimate weekend warrior. These guys are incredible, and sometimes a little perspective, especially from a person who wants into the sport does wonders for you.

Philosophy...

I've always had fun with philosophy, and coming up with phrases and sayings with meaning, and last night I came up with a really good one, its the longest run on sentence in the world, but its from the heart; and it holds a lot of truth.

Love is a feeling, a knowledge that you have a person you can confide in, a person you can tell all your struggles in life and they are there to help you, they are the person to cheer you up on a bad day, and the person who shares the spotlight on the great happy days, the person who makes you feel like you're king or queen of the world, that you can do anything, accomplish anything because they love you and will do anything to see you be successful, and they will always stand at your side even when you're wrong and the world is telling you you're wrong.

Atlanta and wild finishes

What is it with Atlanta and having wild and crazy finishes to its races. For a second I thought the finish to the truck race would be 4 wide coming to the line, Then it looked like the man in 5th would be coming to take the checkers.

Whatever they have done to make that place work so well for side by side and close finishes somebody needs to take a serious look at, because its a great recipie for racing, its a great track, and they need more places with multiple grooves for great side by side racing.

Here's a thought, Ryan Newman took the pole with a lap at nearly 194 mph average, makes you wonder if that place had some fresh asphalt what kind of speeds they would be running. Can you say qualifying at over 200 miles per hour? I think its incredibly possible when they repave Atlanta in the future. Its going to be very interesting to see how NASCAR would handle that, I'd like to see a qualifying lap over 200 mph again, whether its at Daytona or Talladega, NASCAR should use it to its benefit, if Indy Cars can go 230 easily. I don't see why a Cup car cant sell itself going 200.

2 more classes to go

17 classes down, and only 2 classes to go. I'm so close to graduation its so nice. I'm ready for graduation and to finally not have to spend 10 hours at work or school with no interruption. It's going to be so nice to finally be free of school, and know that its a great base for my future, and I can really work on moving forward with my life. I'm so excited for everything coming up, down to two weeks til I'm off and in Canada, and I'm counting the hours. I wish I could leave and be there right now.

Another class bites the dust.

Its a little pre mature, but I basically have to show up tomorrow to guarantee that I move onto my next class. The End of Phase project was harder then I thought, but I still got a B on it, so I'm really happy with the work that I did. I've definitely progressed a lot as a welder from Day 1 and it really shows. I'm glad that I've had a class like this, even though its not my favorite thing to do, I feel much more stable with a welder, and there is some serious money in the Industry. It makes me want to be an even better welder, because it gives me another facet to put on my resume, and help me open doors with race teams.

I'm really really getting excited about my upcoming trip, it should be a whole bunch of fun, just from the single fact that I'm finally seeing the person who makes me so happy and makes me smile all the time again. I can't wait to see her again.

Hump Day....

Wednesdays.... you never really know if you should be glad that the weekend is coming, or be sad that the weekend is still 2 days away, its the day of the week farthest from a day off work, and you never see someone giving out Random Wednesdays off. Only the rare times that major holidays fall on Wednesdays do you get em off. Poor wendnesdays get shafted all the time, maybe thats why we call it hump day.

Up and over the hump and on our way to the weekend, Tomorrow is my last day welding. Our endphase project isn't the easiest, or the most fun, but I'll get it. I need to walk out of this class with another A, keep my 3.95 GPA and 99% Attendance and be ready for the final 6 weeks of school.

I'm so looking forward to the next few weeks, there's so much going on in my life, from the newly started job search, to the road trip to Canada, to Going home for Thanksgiving, a whole 4 days at home!!!! and My parents coming out for my graduation two weeks after that. This is the beginning of a very very busy 2 months if you include Christmas and New Years and a return trip to Canada, I'm looking forward to all of it. It should be so much fun, I can't wait.

Why can't it be Friday?

I'm soo ready for the weekend, I can't wait for it. I'm just ready to have this week done and over with. Maybe its cause I'm excited for my roadtrip, or I just want to get this class over, I'm not sure. I'm definitely tired of welding stuff, 6 consecutive school days welding over 5 hours a day can take a toll on you, especially when you aren't used to it. I shouldn't complain, I'm definitely more confident in my welding now, and everything seems much easier to work with and work on. Hopefully tomorrow will be a much better, or interesting or exciting or something better then today, cause I sure could use a pick me up.

The Chase for the Cup

There are 5 guys with someone legitimate shots at winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup title with 4 races remaining in the season. I do have to admit that this program of making a playoff system creates contrived excitement, but if the excitement creates more fans, and helps grow the sport, then bring them all in.

Consider this for a second, under the old system Tony Stewart would have over a 300 point lead, meaning he could nearly clich the Championship by just starting the race at Phoenix, or even clinch it at the end of the Texas race. Now I don't know about you, but I've loved watching championships like the 2003 Busch, 2004 and 1992 Cup championships come down to the last laps of the last race.

Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, and Carl Edwards are the 5 drivers with legitimate shots, and only the first 4 seem to be in real potential spots to win this championship. I don't believe that the other 5 being over 160 points out to have a legitimate shot at the championship, and this is turning into a 5 horse and running away race. Unless Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson have trouble any time soon, with 30+ finishes, this championship is slowly coming to them. The next 2 weeks are separation weeks. It could be a 2 horse race going into Phoenix, or an 6 or 7 horse race. The wonders of the Chase for the Cup, like it or hate it, make this part of the season fun

Martinsville reflections

Another short track sunday at Martinsville, tempers flare, brakes burn up, sheetmetal bends and Jeff Gordon proved again that he's a master of shorttracks. Tony Stewart dominated the day, leading the most laps, but in the last hundred laps his car lost a step and Jeff Gordon was able to use excellent strategy to take another win this season, and give Steve Letarte his first victory.

Rusty Wallace ran well in his last Martinsville start, but luck ran out with about 20 to go when he got punted on a restart and ended up finishing back in 19th with damage.

Denny Hamlin, running in the 11 car, had a great run again proving each and every week that he's probably the driver worthy of a shot next year in the cup series.

Looking forward to Atlanta, and the fact that Roush drivers have won the last race at all four of the tracks remaining on the schedule, I see the points race tightening up again, Maybe not from a competitor falling out of a race, but just from a roush driver walking away with a race. This is the time for Greg Biffle, the most consistent Roush driver to make his move and power to the front.

Are Soft Walls good for NASCAR?

After watching the crashfest last weekend, and seeing 15 yellows in the busch race, I'm beginning to wonder. Softer Walls provide a cushion for drivers and help reduce the gforces involved in hitting a concrete wall at 190 miles per hour. But a crippling side effect is that from the use of these softer walls, there are more cars finishing races then ever before, and more cars running at somewhat decent, but still rolling chicane speeds.

Those ingredients I believe are partly to blame for the rise in cautions this year, look back on one of my favorite websites Racing Reference shows rundowns and summaries of cautions and who led the laps in an event, and go look for the last time a cup race went green the whole day, it was in 2002 at Talladega of all places. Softer walls started to come into abundance around that time, and now their proliferation is seen at every oval on the Nextel Cup circuit, and nearly every one in the Busch and truck series.

There isn't really a way to get anyone to eliminate soft walls, because driver injuries have decreased dramatically. I'm not against soft walls, but I believe that NASCAR should institute a rule that saves the teams a lot of stress and potential crew member injury and some cash in trying to keep avoiding rolling chicanes. Why not have a rule that states if your car goes behind pit wall that it can't continue in competition, along with a rule that states a car can't be worked on Pit road for more then 5 minutes. It takes cars out of races that have been crashed, and provides less of that rolling chicane, chain wreck accidents that seem to happen now.

NASCAR makes rule changes every day, I'd like to see one like this implemented, for the future of the sport and for the spirit of great competition.

7 to go

Only seven more weeks, 35 more school days, until I finally escape this school and start my journey towards a career. I still need to do some more work on my resume, and I got some really good advice from my parents of what I need to include in it, and hopefully it'll come out looking really really good.

Work has been a pain the past couple days, and today was the day that finished everything off... we sent out 3 and a half truckloads of mattresses, which is a whole lot more then we do in two days much less then in 1 day. I shouldn't complain, it was all set and ready to go when I got there and the trucks came pretty early to get everything out the door. Its still just a pain and time consuming and not much fun :(

I'm just glad its finally the weekend, and its that much closer to me taking my roadtrip to Canada :)

Overslept, Overworked, Underappreciated...

So I wake up right when school starts this morning, and maybe I shoulda just stayed there. We've been welding the past two days out in lab, which is lots of fun, but today I just couldn't do anything right. Lay a straight bead, nope. Lay a bead in a circle, nope. Lay a bead that sat right next to the previous bead, nope. Frustrating as hell, and for 5 hours you stand and struggle your way through your work, not much fun.

However my day would get better, much much better, its always a good day, when your boss asks you if you want the good news or the bad news, its always a good day. Good news, we're leaving at 5. Bad news, we might not have a truck here to unload til 5. Combine that with the fact that whoever worked in the mornig decided to play with memory foam instead of work and left a nice heaping pile of mattresses to box and sort. Yay me.

Finally at 3pm, our missing truck arrives, and considering it was our break I'm much more then under appreciative of the fact the truck has horrible timing and was supposed to be there at 8am, made me slightly grumpy. Unload truck, and now its time to start getting the stuff ready to ship out, cause we have trucks waiting for this stuff to go out today, and we have another truck from the same place coming tomorrow at 8am. (I hope to god that they are, otherwise tomorrow isn't gonna be fun)Busted my ass working on getting some stuff ready to ship out, which I was successful doing, and faster then anybody else who coulda done it, so it makes me feel good. I could have worked more, but I'm feeling it now :(

I'm tired, I'm sore and you guys don't need anymore bitching from me tonight, I want a pepsi, just leave me alone.

Boredom Wednesdays..

In the massive boredom, and anticipating that I can make everything work out, I should be incredibly happy in 545 hours and 27 minutes. I'd rather just say that on Noon, 23 days from now, but I'm bored and had to figure out how many hours were in 23 days. Maybe I should go off and hunt for a countdown clock, but that would be easy, but it would kill some boredom

Thoughts again, from a weekend and beyond...

Random thoughts, a collection of random assorted things made up in about three seconds that I claim I thought about over the weekend, but I really just made them up right now.

If the pace car runs low on gas, do they still use the sunoco gas pumps to put race fuel in it?

If the tire wars were still happening would Saturday have happened?

Goodyear has more power then NASCAR?

Tires go boom, and cars go crunch, but what sound does a fan leaving make?

Admission came with chunks of levigated racetrack and rubber to be thrown onto it in an attempt to lay rubber on the surface.

The F1 race at 1:30am is better then the Cup race, how sad.

Could NASCAR ever run at places like the Chinese Grand Prix and be sucessful?

Can Canada become a viable race venue as an alternative for a North West track?

How many races would be lost to venues outside this country?

How long will we wait for the car of tomorrow?

Is the Engine of the Future really a step into the 21st Century?

Should it all really matter in the long run?

Should NASCAR have cancelled Saturday?

NASCAR had an unprecedented thought on Saturday night, cancelling, and cutting shot a race because of an unacceptable tire and racetrack surface combination. A perfect opportunity to call the race would have come at lap 200, and telling teams the race would have been shorted to lap 250 would have given plenty of teams time to prepare for a proper end of a race.

Sadly NASCAR did what it usually does, claiming the show must go on, no matter how sad, or how dangerous it is for competitors. It seems these days that NASCAR has become all about butts in the seats and butts infront of their TV's and less about the competitors and the teams that put on the show every week. Call me crazy but I don't think NASCAR really cared about the putting driver's lives on the line in a track they deem safe to race on, more about making sure that the people watching the event got the best of their money.

With too much evidence showing there would be problems on Friday night, and the problems evident early Saturday, NASCAR's management should have done something that would have saved teams money and still provided a decent show for the fans. NASCAR is supposed to have certain requirements for track surface, and track preparation, and I feel those requirements weren't met and NASCAR should have restricted the length of the race or called the race off.

Its kinda like Indy in June, F1 had bunches of options, but puts on a horrible show with 6 cars... atleast no equipment was destroyed in that race, unlike the carnage of Saturday.

NASCAR, the ball was in your court and you fumbled, and as a fan and a NASCAR member I feel dissapointed that I had to watch that on Saturday, because it was atrocious.

Hard Tires, excess speeds= one horrible race.

Too bad it all could have been prevented. The race last night was atrocious, 30 laps was about the maximum anyone could go on a set of tires, before they were completely destroyed, and that race was a sham of an event. There weren't 22 yellows, but that was because nobody could race with each other for any extended period of time.

Humpy Wheeler, for all he has done for the sport, ushering in the age of night races and a master at promotion, promoted the heck out of something horrible. The levigation process used created so much heat in the tires, and the tires wouldn't wear out and the speeds wouldn't fall off.

Is it Goodyear's Fault? no, because they have to do so much effort to get these tires to survive under the intense loading that they endure, but I think an effort should have been placed on having a good tire at the racetrack, but after the May race, when tires weren't a problem its harder to say what really was the problem.

Its definitely Lowes Motor Speedway's fault, by deciding to levigate a track surface that although worn out and needing to be smoothed out was still a good racetrack. Now we were stuck with a very loose racetrack, with little grip when cars ran side byside.

Good news is that the track will be repaved before next year, but I see speeds being just as fast or faster then they were now, but the racetrack will have bunches of extra grip in it. Look forward to next years races because they will be much better.

The problem with Levigation....

The newly, and soon to be repaved levigated version of Lowes Motor Speedway has a serious flaw in its design. Unlike what the diamond gooving has done to smooth places like Dover and Indianapolis, the asphalt surface at Charlotte isn't matched up to create the speeds the cars are running on the surface.

Levigation cut bunches of small grooves in the racetrack, which effectively creates a much larger surface area for a tire to contact. Well, there isn't a problem with that, because the racetrack has a huge amount of grip in the corners. Evidenced by speeds that broke the old track record by 5 miles an hour. The problems lie in when you make a car lose a little grip, start sliding, and lose that grip in the racetrack.

The edge between going fast and wrecking is so fine now, that you can't hardly slip up and survive. Combine that with a harder compound tire to handle the speeds and seems to have a penchant for blistering creates trememdous problems

Its such a problem that you see like what we saw last night in 14 yellows and 22 yellows in the 600 mile race in May.

And to think that Humpy Wheeler was going to pave the racetrack for this year, but didn't want to because they were installing safer barriers. I'm sure he wishes he would have paved the speedway before this season, instead of paving it before next seasons activities.

Oh well, better luck next year Humpy.....

Student of the Course...again!

Whoot! For the third consecutive class I got student of the course, which is really awesome! This was the only class that I wanted to get the award, because it was the class I had the most experience in before I took it.

I'm really happy for the weekend, and I can't believe how quickly the week has passed, its the weekend already and yesterday feels like Tuesday. I've only got 4 more weeks until I go to Canada, and I can't wait for it. and 8 more weeks til graduation, things are coming up really quickly, and I'm so excited for them to come. :D

Tired

and grumpy, so I don't feel like writing much, other than I hope like heck that this problem with the levigated Lowes Motorspeedway is fixed, it was loads of fun in May, and its nice and cooler now, which I don't think is gonna help anybody. Hopefully Qualifying will put on a good show, an dflyin Ryan can take another pole :D

A lack of school support, and a long day...

Alright so today hasn't been the most fun, it started out good, getting a perfect score on what is supposed to be the hardest test in the class. Although things went down hill when people needed to read the questions, and the teacher gave em the point, cause it said somethiong semi confusing, although I made an excellent point and it wasn't heard. Makes you feel great. Not. :(

Onto bigger and more depressing things, I'm not really sure why, but it seems like everybody at this school puhes or really tries to push kids away from NASCAR. I mean I understand that its a hard business to get into, and that there are a lot of risks involved in the business, but damn, I've done what I've done, seen what I've seen, I think I'm ready. But no, going over my resume with the school, which I'm definitly not very happy with, because its to focused on what the school is doing, and not on previous racing or even work effort which could be used for racing success. I'm definitely gonna rework it and change some things around to make it a much better piece before I let it get sent out to raceshops.

I also had this grand thought that they would be able to send a resume out to companies, and raceteams, but evidently they can only send resumes to buisnesses, and raceshops have to ask for resumes. Heck with that, I'll go out and make my own stuff and do it on my own. Grrrr, the whole process I just don't like, and I'm a go it on my own person anyways, I have a start, I'll just make my own thats a personalized one which'll hopefully help me stand out in a crowd. :D

I'm not even gonna start about work, this post is too long already, its been a looong day....

Drawings...

Ever draw something to scale for a project? like a house, or a backyard, or something? Well I spent the whole day, skateching out a NASCAR Nextel Cup chassis out in detail. Half scale I might add. Which you'd think it would make it easier, but I want you to find a clean place to draw something on a paper thats 90 inches long. it wouldn't be that big of a deal if I woulda had more help doing it, but I didn't, not that I really cared. I like drawing stuff out to scale, and making it right, but I really wasn't expecting to spend 6 hours doing it today... Oh well, soon we'll be welding, and thats gonna be fun, I'm really looking forward to it. :d

EDIT: Told ya I'd break that tradition I started last tuesday this week, and you all didn't believe me :p

I'm gonna like this class..

Welding, I nver thought I'd say I'll really enjoy a welding class, infact I've kinda been dreading it, but I think that that this one is gonna really be awesome. Learning about all the bars in the roll cage is really gonna be a nice thing to have, because now I'll know what they're talking about in all those technical update bulletins.

Time seemed to fly today, and thats something I've missed in the last class especially, hopefully these weeks won't go by too quick, because I wanna get some good learning.

And in personal news, I finally got full parental approval to go and see Mandy again, and on November 11th I'll be trecking up from NC to see her again. I can't wait, only 32 days from today :D

There's a reason Mark Martin hasn't won a championship

Pessimism is the enemy of sucess. Its a complete enemy, if you think you will fail, you will allways succede at it. I mean you're a nice guy, and you have thousands of people who want you to win a championship, and you're saying that after winning your first race of the season, that you can't win the championship?!? Come on buddy, I mean you are only 100 some odd points out, with 6 races to go, there is plenty of time for you to go out and win the thing. Don't count yourself out of it. But you already have, and for that, you can't think you'll ever do it, and you won't. Its too bad too, because all these people out there want you to succede and win one. I'd much rather root for a guy like Carl Edwards, who is happy to be running where he is, and be happy for what he has, than a guy who goes out wins, and still says he can't win a championship....

What a finish...

I have to say that I'm not really a fan of the 1.5 mile medium banked, downforce specials. Places that make it hard to pass that have grown popular across the country. But I have to admit that the finish to today's race was pretty spectacular. For 1 its always nice to see two cars racing for the win come to the line side by side, but to see them race that way for the entire lap, inches apart, and on the verge of an accident is remarkable. Greg Biffle had the Car to beat, and if the race woulda gone another lap or two I can guarantee the outcome would have been different. Remarkably a car on 40 lap old tires help one off with 15 lap tires, and did it the hard way, charging on the outside, pinching him down, and using as much of the racetrack as possible.

It doesn't rank with Pearson Petty in Daytona in 76 or Busch Craven in 03 but for a clean race ya to the stripe race, it was one of the best this year. Lets just hope the race sunday is just like it.

Rain..

Its constant. For two days, nothing but dark skies and rain. Two more days of this wonderful weather are to come. I'm oh so happy... Its times like this that I've grown to love Colorado, I miss home, I miss the mountains, the wonderful sunny weather 90% of the time. I really wish this rain would just end... maybe tomorrow.. nope, 80% chance of rain... Maybe Sunday... probably not, 70% chance of rain... Oh well, atleast its finally the weekend, and I got another class in the books, with another A. Only 9 more weeks Bill, 9 more weeks :D

5 people I'd like to meet if you had a chance

I figured this would be a cool thing to do, I'm sure its been done before, and will be done again, but There are all kinds of people out in this world, but picking 5 who you could call most infuential, or most important to you. So with out further delay, 5 people who are the ones I would love to meet...


1. Smokey Yunick.. The Man, Myth, and Legend seriously descibes him, I wish I could learn half the things he knew..

2. Bill France, Sr.. It would be awesome to see what the man who founded NASCAR and his thoughts on growth and the expansion in the Sport :D

3. Thomas Jefferson.. I dunno, any inventor who can be such a big part in the American Revolution, is someone worth meeting

4. Leonardo Di Vinci.. From a time I wish I knew more about, why not meet a guy who has had such an impact on the modern world

5. Jesus.. Maybe because I find modern christianity to be bound on the wrong terms, and that being in tune with the lord involves more than the Church. Meet the man who many of us hold extremely tight in our hearts, and if anything get thoughts on humanity as a whole.

Resume workshop...

Its time for me to really crack down and build a great resume, I got one from the school today, and although I like the layout it isn't related to racing the way I would have liked it. So I think its time I knuckled down started banging on doors and see what opportunities come available. So if anybody really knows any resume websites they've used or anything of that sort I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance everybody.

Something new, and slightly different

Usually I ramble about how I feel, or maybe whats going on in my life, or that I should turn a light on before I start typing this at 6:30.....yes lights do help, and make a contribution that could be insightful or helpful, or just informative to pass along your days.. So Introducing a new Tuesday Tradition, that however when it gets broken next week will still seem like a cool thing to type about. The Jasyki Rumor roundup... I'll pick one topic Jayski has posted on his wonderful site Jayski.com and ramble about it. It could be a team rumor, or in this week's case, a component for the future.

The Car of Tomorrow has been under wraps and in development sine early 2001. The death of 7 time NASCAR Nextel Cup series champion Dale Earnhardt brought about many changes in the sport and this here could be the most anticipated and long awaited result of years of testing and research and development.

Coming in looking somewhat like the current cars you see on the NASCAR circuit the Car of Tomorrow will com in about 3 inches taller, and 4 inches wider than the current racecar. This change allows a wider stance, and brings the driver more towards the center of the racecar, something NASCAR has desired for a very long time.

With the first ontrack test of the new car this past Monday at Talladega, along with the ability to test multiple aerodynamic additions to slow the cars down NASCAR should be well on its way to hopefully ending the Restrictor plate crutch, and teams can use all of their horsepower at the megaspeedways of Daytona and Talladega.

Shocks, Shocks, Shocks....

Oh god, today was sooo boring at school. It shoulda been something I would be incredibly interesting, Learning about the wonders of the 7300 series Penske Racing Shock... Too bad I couldn't get any focus on anything. I think I can really say that I took one or maybe two things out of the 6 hours I spent in class today, and I was really hoping that there would be some more info for me. Well I'll probably be one of the few people who do good on the test tomorrow, and sadly I think thats from my previous experience and the little extra things I learned today. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. This class, I had real high expectations for and sadly this is really letting me down...

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Restrictor plate racing brings out the best in every team. The best engines, with the slickest most aerodynamic bodies, the closest and nearly the fastest speeds on the circuit. But Restrictor Plates bring a nemesis, The tight racing we all love to watch, the racing that brings us to the edges of our seats comes with a price. The big wrecks we saw today, are they a product of driver error, Racetrack design, or an Aeropackage that encourages big pack racing, and cars that punch big holes in the air?

Personally its a combination of all three, considering the rate of large wrecks that have come about the past few years, I'm reminded that NASCAR has opened up Restrictor Plates, and brought about mandated rear Shock and Spring combinations, which while lowering speeds and increasing rear downforce, have brought about a negative sideeffect. The hole these cars punch in the air has become larger and larger, meaning that it has become easier and easier to move your way through the field and pass cars. One would assume that this is a good thing, right? wrong buddy, this has brought about a flurry of large accidents and even in the era of HANS devices and SAFER Barriers, isn't acceptable.

So how do we bring about a change? Lets start by doing something that nobody wants, lets decrease the size of the plate, make the cars take a wider stance, but let the teams have the ability to take the rear of the cars out of the air again. It may not be the most popular change, but it will allow the cars to spread out, and keep the bigger wrecks from happening. It also places an emphasis on teamwork and smart passing, because with less chances to pass, you need to pick spots better, to allow yourself the best chance to come up front.

Yes we would all like to see the familiar slingshot passes of the 70's and 80's because thats the Daytona and Talladega we came to love, but sadly those days are gone, and bringing them back will never happen due to the immense competition in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series today.

I have returned.

New and Improved, I'm back and ready to be around for a while. I missed this thing, and everybody that talks to me on the net so much, and yes Amanda, even though I didn't show it a lot I really did miss you. Hopefully this new Computer here will fit into my finances, cause I'm scared now that I'm not going to have as much as I wanted going into Christmas, and depending on what job I get this thing may have to go away.

My parents weren't to enthusiastic about what I did, but damn, I missed people, and I had some money to go get one, atleast for now, Payments and stuff suck, but I guess I'll have to survive. I think its about time to put ads back on here again, and see if I can get new faces out here, cause it would be nice to think that my time on the internet could be rewarded in cash.

Everything will turn out alright, but for now things will be tight, but I like it and hopefully it likes me, and everything will be for the better. It sure is good to be back. :D