So I know it’s been a few weeks.  I’m sorry, I’ve not forgotten about you.  I’ve been struggling to come up with anything new to say.

Last week we raced in Texas, and if you read the first Kansas entry from last year (I believe called 3 Day Tape Delay) it’s pretty much what happened in Texas.  We led 140 laps I think, had the best car, and got beat at the end on strategy out of our control.  We were the leader, and knew everyone was going to do the opposite of what we did.  We stayed out, they pitted, and we finished 6th.  What can you do?

As for Bristol today, either of the Bristol entries last year will do.  Although we had a much better car today than we have before at Bristol, our race was derailed by a loose wheel.  It was more fun than either race last year, because our car was really good.  Oh well.

Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Pocono, Pennsylvania for a Tuesday/Wednesday tire test.  Getting the data system going was my main task last week, which meant working a full ‘Saturday’ and a half ‘Sunday’ before flying to Bristol.  In between those I had a really fun trivia night, then we wandered over to play shuffleboard and the jukebox at the Wynkoop Brewery.

After the test finished on Wednesday, we are going to drive to NYC for the night, and then on to Richmond, VA the next morning for the race weekend.  Hopefully that will be fun, and not just exhausting.  We shall see.

I’m also struggling to come up with blog titles.  This one has nothing to do with anything, it’s just my favourite lyric right now (from Smoke by Brian Fallon).  Though it kind of applies to my week last week I guess.

Let’s go home.  It feels like a very long time since the of weekend.  A week ago, I spent Sunday wandering around Denver, sampling craft beers at every micro brew I could find.  It was much more enjoyable than this Sunday was,  let me tell you.

The whole Martinsville weekend is an experience.  It’s (I think by far?) the worst hotel we stay at.  It’s always a relief to leave the room, even if you know you have to return at some point.  But it’s right next door to a good Mexican restaurant, and across the street from a good pizza place.  And team dinner is at Bojangles, which is completely ridiculous, though not bad really.  They do have good biscuits.  So we eat pretty well.

And we bowl.  Oh do we bowl.  The NASCAR officials organize a tournament every Saturday evening that we are in Martinsville.  And it’s an experience that I don’t think I can explain.  Best I can do is to suggest you watch The Big Lebowski, and imagine being there.  Plus standing in your lane for the American National Anthem.  Oh, and there’s a mural on the wall of God passing a bowling ball to Jesus (presumably?) who appears to be dressed as a high school wrestler.  Don’t ask, I can’t help.

It is fun though. It’s a very low key, relaxing evening, where we just act ridiculously and drink beer.  On that note, I found Presidente, which is a beer I drank in the Dominican Republic the reading week of first year, and hadn’t seen since.  Tasted exactly as I (think I) remember.

So the race didn’t go great, as you may have guessed by my delay in getting to it.  We struggled.  Again, this is kind of how I expected us to run at this point in the season, still trying to figure everything out.  We hit it on one run, got as high up as 6th and were feeling pretty good.  And we couldn’t get it back after that, not really sure why at this point.  Oh well, Texas should be better.  Plus it’s Texas.

My off week was really good, I actually had 5 straight days off, it was weird to go probably 48 hours without thinking about anything work related.  I got to spend a couple nights in Denver, and drive up into the mountains which is always spectacular.

And this is looking like a fun week coming up, getting together with some friends Monday to watch the college basketball final, Tuesday night is the first game of the softball season, and I’m hoping to get a bit of work done on the ChumpCar on Wednesday.

Programming note, the Texas race this coming weekend is Saturday evening, probably 6 or 7 pm start?