After another disappointing race in Topeka the decision was made to abandon the new combination that was installed in our car at the beginning of the season, we had thought we could take what we had and make it a bit better by changing a few things in the engine and clutch combination.

I guess we were wrong. With about half the initial part of our season behind us we decided the testing would have to end, we can't afford to give away anymore races and should go back to what we know and have had success with, probably a decision that needed to be made a few races ago.

After leaving the Bristol race I thought we had made some strides to getting our car on track, we ran some very impressive half track speeds and then first round made a really good top end charge of 330 mph. It showed the car was making good power and I hoped that the Topeka race was going to be the start of our turnaround.

I hate to be wrong.

Qualifying started and we had a bug in our car. It wouldn't idle properly on the starting line. It wouldn't do it in the pit area on warm up but once we went up to run and the car did a burnout and backed up it would start going crazy. These cars are very finicky and when the slightest thing is not right it affects everything. With the idle higher than it was supposed to be it starts to affect the clutch, it removes the neutral position and starts heating up the clutch which is very bad.

In returning to Bristol we have some fond memories of last year. We made it to the finals and really could have won the race, unfortunately we smoked the tires after changing lanes to run in the so-called "better lane." We lost to Brandon Bernstein.

The week started off with the annual golf tournament benefiting the Speedway Children's Charity. Last year my team won so I was returning as the defending champion. We had a great time for a great cause and although we didn't win we finished a respectable fourth and I once again won the "long drive." I have won every year and received a golf bag and a nice little trophy so all was not lost.

In preparing for the race we had a brand new race car to get ready. We tested it on the Monday after St. Louis and although the track was very marginal we had some positive feedback.