WE WON! WE WON!! WE WON!!!

Weekend Reflections: Racing

This week we went out to the track on Thursday to do some testing. Man, IT PAID OFF!!! I won my first race on Saturday! We found some speed on Thursday, but the high humidity and heat would challenge us today. During practice the car was decent, but needed to be better. We qualified 6th, which was not satisfactory, and I was a little concerned. I even told someone, "We're pretty good, but not good enough to win." I ate those words!

During the heat race the car was a lot better than qualifying, but it started getting loose in, meaning it wants to spin out as I entered the turn. Steve and Mike looked at me and said, "We'll fix it!" I said, "Ok, guys, I trust you when it comes to the car." By the way that is what Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) said in Days of Thunder.

I started 2nd row outside, and the first ten laps we were haulin the mail with the leaders. There were five of us checked out in front and it was good racing. The first caution came at lap 14 and Steve asked how the car was. I told him, "It's getting loose in." He told me to change my line a bit. I did, it helped big time.

After the restart there was another caution and I started 4th outside of the 51 of Johnny Z. I got a great start and got to second coming out of turn 2. I was thinking, "Man, this thing is working good!"

With 10 laps to go Steve came on the radio and told me that he thought we had the car to win. I was beginning to believe it also. Darin Stordahl and I (1st and 2nd) were nose to tail for quite a few laps until there was a caution. On the restart I was outside of Darin and got a good start, but struggled to keep the car low in the 2nd groove. I didn't surrender the spot though, and coming through 3 and 4 someone got into Darin spinning him alongside of me. I came across the start finish line in first!!!

It was lap 39 and we were to have a green, white, and checkered finish; in other words, a two lap drag race. I knew if I got a good start no one could get me. I got a great start! Cleared the 2nd place car coming off of two and kept her fast the last lap and a half. It was awesome...

So when I crossed the line and took the checkers I'm yelling on the radio, but I didn't know what to do! Steve said, "Burn it down if you want" which means to do a major burn out--like on TV. I had never done a burnout before, and if you saw my attempt at the car show last week you know I needed some work! Well, I dropped it into 2nd gear and threw it sideways while mattin the gas! The burnout was awesome and filled the car with smoke!!! I got out and stood on the door and roof fist pumping! I was so pumped up!!!!

I saw my wife and little girl track side first thing, then Pastor Ron and Noland Bender and his family!!! It was phenomenal!!!

I gave a bunch of shout outs to people I want to thank on the twitter to the right of this post...But I can't say enough how important it is to have a great team. We were shorthanded today; big thanks to Mike, Steve, Mark and John! You guys ROCK and worked your tails off!

After the race I got just about 100 text messages of congrats. Thanks to everyone who gave a shout out! Well, it's almost 1 am and I got church in the morning! No matter, the thrill of victory will carry me all the way.

Finally, winning my first race was probably one of the most significant sporting accomplishments of my life! I've been on some great teams and won in baseball, basketball, motocross, but the effort it takes to win in a stock car leaves me with a significant bit of reward. After the race one of the legends of Evergreen, Carl Zaretzke, came up to me and told me I ran a great race. That was pretty special for me because I watched Carl win several championships as a kid watching at the track. Who would've thought that a 36 -year-old-pastor could try and drive a race car in the feature division and get a win in his 27th start (on 4 wheels)!!! I'm so excited.

Thanks fans, and thank you Jesus for keeping me and my comrades safe every week.

Here is the Evergreen Story.