First of all, I’d like to wish everyone a belated Happy Memorial Day and to thank all of those who are serving and have served our country so that we may have our freedom.

This is going to be a long blog today. The last three weeks have been a bit busy and I got a little behind on my blogging. Last I wrote to you, we were heading to Dover. We had a good weekend there. I spent Friday night at the Dover Air Force Base, signing autographs for soldiers and their families. Again, I can’t say enough to those who serve. Thank you very, very much. Many Nationwide teams, including mine, hosted soldiers as guests on Saturday. The race went pretty well. The car was loose, but the guys worked hard and we finished fourth. After getting home from Dover, the Dollar General team loaded the hauler and we headed to Daytona to test the “new” Nationwide car. Out test went well. Like most teams, our car was pretty loose, but we were able to post the fastest time during the final practice session. We got back from Daytona on Wednesday night and I headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday for the Sprint All-Star weekend.

On Friday, we were able to get practice in and start qualifying but rain rolled in and we were postponed. NASCAR cancelled qualifying for the All-Star race but since there were only four cars left in Showdown Qualifying, they didn’t cancel ours right away. Once the rain stopped and the track was almost dry, they decided to officially cancel Showdown Qualifying and set the field based off of the qualifying order. This was so they could hurry and get the Truck race started. We didn’t mind because the Dollar General Toyota would start sixth! We came back the next day and tried our best to race into the Sprint All-Star Race. Unfortunately, we finished 13th, but we ran up there with teams that race in the Cup Series every weekend, and that just shows how hard these guys have been working on this team. Another good thing, we took our car home in one piece! A lot of teams weren’t so lucky that weekend.

It was nice to not have to travel too far the last couple of weeks. Wednesday night I headed out to the NASCAR SpeedPark to sign autographs with a group of drivers. NASCAR organized the event and it went really well! The crowd was great! So many people came out for autographs and to race the go karts for charity. It is always fun to meet with fans. We really appreciate all of you. After my hour of autograph signing, my crew chief, Trent Owens, and I were on MRN’s Performance Live, which was broadcast from the SpeedPark. We had a really good time chatting with Larry McReynolds and Steve Post.

The next day we headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway for practice and Cup qualifying. Before I climbed into the car, I had a couple of interviews to do at the No. 32 hauler. NASCAR.com shot a video interview that will be broadcast on their website later this summer. At this time, I don’t know when they will run the interview. When I find out, I’ll let you know! The next interview was with Claire B. Lang for SIRIUS. We recorded the interview so that she could use it on her Friday show. After that, I went to work. It was back-to-back practices in the Nationwide Series car and the Cup car. All of them went well! We were fast in Cup practice so we definitely felt confident going into qualifying that night. Unfortunately, the No. 32 team would not make its Coca-Cola 600 debut this year. The rear of the car snapped loose in turn three and I just couldn’t get back on the throttle to turn in the lap we needed. We’ll get ‘em next time!

Friday was an “off” day at the track. I enjoyed a nice, quiet day at the house. I hung out with the dogs and drank lots of water so that I’d be hydrated for Saturday. Friday night I stayed in my motor home and just got ready for a busy Saturday. Saturday morning we qualified. The car was decent, but I knew that it would be good in the race. I headed up to Dollar General’s hospitality suite to meet with the executives and their guests. They are great to work with! After that, I grabbed some lunch and got ready for the race to start. We had a pretty good race and finished eighth. The end of the race got a little crazy. We took four tires on our last pit stop and hoped that it would stay green. Unfortunately we have several cautions after that and a green-white-checkered finish. A top-10 finish isn’t bad, but we know we are better than that. We were all ready to head to Nashville!

And that is where I am writing you from, Nashville Superspeedway. We finished second here last time and I know we could have won if we’d had just a few more laps! I really think this could be our weekend. My sponsor, Dollar General is headquartered just outside of Nashville in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. I know They are going to have about 200 guests here this weekend and to win with everyone here would be fantastic! Well, I had better get ready to go to work. We have a guitar to win…

Oh, one more thing. Tomorrow afternoon almost 30 drivers (including me and my Braun Racing teammates) are signing autographs to raise funds and food items for the Tennessee flood victims. All donations go to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Only 150 wrist bands will be given out so come early and bring your donations! There’s also going to be an auction with some really cool items. There were a lot of people who lost everything in the terrible floods and I’m looking forward to doing what we can to help out.

Have a great weekend!