Carmichael eager for the Nashville race after top-10

I am about to walk out the door and head to the airport and fly to Nashville, Tenn., but wanted to catch up with all of you first. We are Nashville bound this weekend and I am pretty pumped about it. I have never raced at the superspeedway, but I did race a couple years ago at the little speedway with the East Series and finished fourth.

I am flying into Nashville a day early for some media interviews and appearances. I always enjoy getting to know the local media who cover our sport. Wednesday night, I was on the CBS Sports Line with Hope Hines and Thursday we have a very busy day. We start out at Fox 17 in the morning and then move to the 104.5 The Zone studios for a radio interview. After that we are going to be on the Ricky and Bubba radio show and eat lunch with the local media.

Thursday night I am going to be at the Nashville Fan Fest so I would love for you to stop by and say hi. It starts at 5 p.m. CT and ends at 8 p.m. It is at the Camping World Store located near the Grand Old Opry.

If you are in town for the race be sure to stop by and see my Monster Energy Chevrolet show truck at two DAILY'S convenience stores and get a free Ricky Carmichael Monster Energy poster.

Speaking of Monster, they have a cool promotion going on right now at www.monsterenergy.com. You can register at the Web site for a chance to win two garage passes and two grandstand tickets to one of my races. On top of that, you get to meet me and my pit crew.

As you can tell, Nashville is going to be a busy weekend for us, but after such a great finish at Martinsville, I am so ready to head to the track. I will be honest, Martinsville could have been a big bullet for us. I finished 29th at the race last spring and wasn't sure what to expect heading into this year's race. I knew we would be better, but I also know how challenging Martinsville can be.

We struggled a little bit in practice, but were able to start 12th when rain Friday canceled qualifying. Track position is crucial at Martinsville so I was happy with a 12th starting spot. From the beginning of the race, my Monster Energy Chevy was running better than in practice. My goal was to stay out of trouble for the majority of the race and capitalize on a great finish at the end.

It didn't really go as I planned. I was running just inside the top-10 when I got spun on Lap 145. Luckily, the damage was not too severe and we were able to continue. After that I was pretty mad because we lost all the track position we had gained during the race. The Monster Energy Chevy proved to still be strong and I was able to drive my way back to the 10th position.

To come out of Martinsville with a semi-wrecked truck and still finish in the 10th position -- I was a happy camper.

I better get to the airport. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter this weekend.

Come see me in Nashville!

If you are interested in keeping up with Ricky between the blogs you can follow him through the social media world -- www.twitter.com/rickycarmichael and www.facebook.com/rickycarmichaeracing, or his Web site www.rickycarmichael.com.