Good morning! I’m typing this from the plane as we fly to Chicago. We have a lot going on this weekend. The two biggest things, my sponsor, Dollar General is also the title sponsor for the Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland and I am Nationwide Insurance’s Driver of the Week. It’s going to be a busy weekend, packed with appearances and driving, of course.

Thank you to everyone who signed onto NASCAR.com and chatted with me yesterday (Wednesday). It was a lot of fun! That’s the first time I’ve done that this year. It’s always fun to talk to fans. You are a big part of this sport. If you missed me on the web chat and are in the Chicago area, I’ll be signing autographs tonight at the Joliet Race Fan Rally from 6:30-7:30pm at the Nationwide Insurance mobile display.

Last weekend in Daytona was, well, interesting. The new car was pretty cool to drive. Our primary car was good, especially in the draft. Unfortunately we got caught up in someone else’s mistake during practice on Thursday. I’ve had a lot of questions about what happened so I’ll try to explain. When we set up our cars, we often put weights in the hollow frame rails. With the new car, NASCAR requires teams to remove the cap at the end of the frame rail during inspection. Unfortunately, a team forgot to put that cap back on and when the car pulled out onto the track during practice, all of the lead and tungsten blocks slid out. Before anyone could even say anything, we ran over a chunk and blew our left rear tire. The No. 66 had pieces go through the front of the car, too. It was very lucky that no one was hurt. The damage to our Dollar General Toyota was too severe to repair so we pulled out a backup car. The guys worked REALLY hard to get it ready and we were able to make about six laps in Thursday’s final practice. They ended up staying at the track until 10 o’clock that night finishing the car and taking in through inspection again. Just a day of rotten luck.

We put Thursday behind us and headed back to the track on Friday. We were able to get in Nationwide Series qualifying but rain caused NASCAR to cancel Cup qualifying. Thank goodness we got Nationwide in because in those two laps, we found out that the car was bottoming out really bad. Trent and the guys made some repairs during the impound so we had to move to the rear of the field for the start of the race. The race itself was pretty good. We climbed from 42nd to 13th. It was looking like we were going to get a top-15, maybe even a top-10 finish. About five laps to go, we blew a right front tire coming out of turn three. No luck! We ended up finishing 22nd. I know the guys were ready to pack up and put Daytona behind them.

It was great to see some of the Dollar General executives last weekend at Daytona and I’m looking forward to spending some more time with them this weekend in Chicago. I know they are expecting a lot of guests because it is the Dollar General 300 Powered by Coke-Cola.

Well, that’s about it for now. I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. Thank you too all those who fought for our freedom and to those who serve to protect it. Have a great weekend and thanks for following me on The Hot Lap!