Texas win means $100K for "Operation Homefront"

From our gold car in Atlanta we're moving to our PT Special in Texas. The car already has a win under its belt and is the chassis we put on the track in Texas in the spring race. Well, sort of. It's been pretty-well modified since our last trip to Texas; I took a hard wreck in practice after something broke on the right-front of the car. We rolled out the backup car and ran well with it, and the PT Special underwent the transformation that ultimately got it into Victory Lane at Pocono.

There is some added incentive for me to get to Victory Lane this weekend: If I win, Miller Lite will donate an extra $100,000 to "Operation Homefront," a statewide promotional campaign that recognizes, honors and rewards military veterans, both past and present, for their commitment to serving our country. I'd be thrilled to bring home the victory for them.

Almost as Good as Gold

Our eye-catching gold-painted Miller Lite Dodge had a great chance to take the checkered-flag in Atlanta, but some late pit-road strategy and a bizarre finish put us back in eighth place. There have been a bunch of weird finishes this season, and you could probably put this one at the top of the heap. Between our 2 car, the 1 car (Martin Truex Jr.) and the 5 car (Kyle Busch), we led more than 300 of the 327 laps, yet ended up finishing eighth, 31st, and 20th. It looks like a two-man race for the Nextel Cup, but there is still plenty of ground to make up in the standings, and we have our eyes on the top-five.

The crew did a great job setting up the car Friday, and we had an excellent practice session. The Miller Lite Dodge was turning really well, which allowed me to stand on the gas and hope for the best. We went out early in qualifying and turned in a phenomenal lap, shaving about four-tenths of a second off our practice time. Pat Tryson and I thought that might get us a pole, but Greg Biffle turned in an even a better lap, putting us on the outside pole. Starting second gave us a great opportunity to get the car in clean air and run that first run within the top two positions. We also got a good pit box selection, and chose a spot we thought would minimize our chances of a pit road incident. Pit road has been tough on us this year.

Our gold car jumped to the front of the pack just a couple of laps into the race and stayed in the top-three for a good chunk of the race. The day was moving along without incident, and the "Gold Deuce" was humming along smoothly. A couple of slow pit stops shuffled us back a few spots, but the car was so good we kept finding our way back to the front. We weren't the only strong car out there though, with my brother Kyle and Martin taking the lead for large chunks of the race.

Things got a little crazy over the last ten laps. Fuel efficiency became a major player in the finish, with some cars having the fuel to make the distance and some falling short. We were going to have to pit with three laps to go if it had stayed green, but when the caution fell on Lap 319, a bunch of teams, including ours, breathed a sigh of relief. We took four tires and a splash of fuel, but some other cars only took two tires, which put us 12th for the restart. That turned out to be a big deal. On the restart, the 11 car (Denny Hamlin) choked due to lack of fuel and a pileup ensued that collected some of the strongest cars. Our eighth-place finish wasn't so bad considering the 1 car finished 31st and the 5 car finished 20th.

Until next time.
KB