Hey HotLap.com!

We decided to start this blog because I thought it would be really cool to give you guys a behind the scenes look at my life running a limited Nationwide Series schedule on top of the full NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule. I’m going to do a preview of each Nationwide race I’m competing in and then a follow up review the next week. I’ll be able to tell you what I want to do in the race and then give a reflection of how it turned out.

I currently drive Turner Motorsports’ No. 31 Chevrolet Silverado full time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS), and I am running a limited schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) as well. We are having a fantastic year at Turner. In November 2010, I got the first NASCAR pole award for Turner Motorsports and it has only gotten better from there. We got our first win in the Nationwide Series with Mark Martin at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February and all of our teams have been running really well this year. I have been with Turner Motorsports since I was 14-years-old, and it is an amazing organization.

This week I am heading to Talladega Superspeedway with the Nationwide team. I’m really excited because I already know all the guys on the team pretty well and have been able to spend a lot of time with my crew chief, Stewart Cooper, and all the guys, at the track. I’ve been lucky enough to get to most of the Nationwide races and have had the chance to listen to Stewart work with the other drivers. This is great because it gives me a chance to get used to how Stewart works as a crew chief, even though we don’t work together on a week-to-week basis.

This weekend will be my second Nationwide Series start of the season, with my first being at Bristol Motor Speedway. I don’t think I could have found two more different tracks! This will also be my first start at a superspeedway in the ‘new’ Nationwide Series car. Having seen the racing at Daytona, we are all expecting to run in two-car drafts for a majority of the day. With that said, I really want to have a car set-up to be a good ‘pusher’. I think that if you are in the position to push cars to the front, you have an advantage over those guys who aren’t as good ‘pushers’. Also, it’s rarely the guy behind that gets spun out!

The two-car drafts actually work really well for our team. With four Turner Motorsports cars on the track, you always know there is a teammate out there to work with. I know Jason [Leffler] and Reed [Sorenson] worked well together at Daytona, so hopefully our cars will hook-up well at Talladega. I want to find a good drafting partner early in the race, so we can settle in and then make our way to the front for the end of the race. I think if we can keep our ABF Chevy out of trouble early, we can be there at the end of the day battling for the win.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! Check back next week for the review of my weekend, and hopefully I’ll be telling you all about victory lane! Make sure to watch the Aaron’s 312 on ESPN2 on Saturday afternoon. Look for me and my three Turner Motorsports teammates, Jason Leffler, Reed Sorenson and Justin Allgaier, to be there at the end battling for the win!