I don’t really have anything to write today, I’m feeling generally uninspired.  The race today was very blah and forgettable.  We couldn’t really make the car do anything different, this is kind of what I expected with the Toyota/TRD transition at this point.  Once we get all of our tools working the way they were last year, we should be more competitive.

So the highlights of the weekend were not at the track.  Thursday night I saw Bruce Springsteen play at the arena in downtown Phoenix.  For those of you keeping track at home, that was #24.  And it was, as always, spectacular, though I’m sure you knew I’d say that, and don’t really want to hear anymore about it.  Suffice to say, go see him if you can.

And Saturday night team dinner was at a Mexican restaurant/bar in Old town Scottsdale that I really like (though they were out of Dos Equis Amber).  It was just a fun atmosphere, on a beautiful night in the desert.

That’s really all I’ve got.  I will actually be in Denver from tonight until Thursday which is exciting, no testing this week.  Thursday we fly to Fontana, California, which is another weekend that I quite enjoy.  Hopefully it goes a little better on the track!

PS – bonus points for anyone who deciphers the title of this blog

I imagine that the majority of the people leaving Las Vegas don’t feel quite as good as when they arrived.  I would guess that most of them are either feeling a little hungover, or a little light in the pockets.  So in that respect, perhaps I am somewhat unique.  I feel like I just got out of a sand blaster.  I have never in my life experienced wind like that.

It was a cap to an interesting weekend.  It started a day early with a Thursday test day, which required a long week of prepping the car with a new data system that I had to learn about (getting close I guess).  So I was worn out before we got there, didn’t even had time to do laundry last week.  Or the week before.  But I digress.

Anyway, Thursday actually went pretty well, though I always finding testing to be long and stressful.  Nearly everything worked, and we made some progress with the car.

And the upside of that, is that it made Friday the much more relaxing, no testing, no data system, just a regular Friday.  We struggled a bit in practice, but got it going in Qualifying and ended up 10th, which I was quite happy with.

Saturday was focused on race trim practice, and we were decent, around 4th – 8th on long runs.  I thought that, combined with a decent starting spot, would produce a good Sunday. And we ran 2nd there last year, so that inspired confidence.

The true highlight of the weekend is Saturday night team dinner.  We splurge a bit, and go to the Nine Steakhouse which is in the Palm.  Seafood and steak, chocolate desert and white Russians, delicious.  I squeezed in a bit of black jack time before dinner at Caesars, though I couldn’t find a fun table (Craig, where are you?!?).

And then race day, someone decided to mess with the weather.  I got to the pit box about 45 minutes before the race started, and it was like being in one of those machines at the fair that blow dollar bills around you.  Except instead of dollar bills, it was full of sand.  We though the pit box (which weight probably 5000 lbs) was going to blow away or over once or twice.  I’m still a little bit amazed that we got the race in.  We were up and down a bit, ran top 5 most of the day, and then kind of lost the handle a bit at the end.  We think something in the car might have broken, which caused it to be inconsistent and all over the place.  Ended up 11th, which isn’t a bad finish, but it breaks our top 10 streak to start the season.  Oh well, we aren’t here for top 10s, we need that win!

Not much of a ‘week’ for me coming up, we fly to Charlotte on Monday afternoon to test Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then Thursday we will fly to Phoenix for the weekend, it’s another track, location and weekend that I enjoy.  Gotta squeeze some laundry in somewhere…