Marshall Movie

I go to the movies about once a week but last night was the first time I have been this month. There has been a lot of orders to take and process at Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure this month so that has cut into my "movie night." I probably could have made it to the movies a few times but it seemed like every night that I wanted to go something else got in the way. Plus, I had to save a few nights for the dreaded Christmas shopping. Actually, the shopping was not too bad this year. Regardless of whether I go to the movies during the year, I always end up there sometime around the holidays. Last night was no exception and everyone else in Hickory was there as well.

The movie we decided on was, "We are Marshall." I had heard of it for a while now but I really did not know much about what happened and what angle the director would take. Right from the beginning I was impressed with how real the movie seemed. One of my favorite things is a movie about a true story. This one seemed to leave a lot of the "Hollywood" out and just stick to the storylines that happened during that tragic year in Huntington, WV.

On the surface, you might see a football movie but it is far from that. What I took away from this movie was the stories behind the people of this school and this town. The movie showed the different angles and ways that people were affected in their lives. It was very real to me. Not everyone deals with tragic situations the same way and the movie made this very easy to understand that.

It is hard to talk about a movie without giving too much away so I can tell you that if you are interested in knowing about a true story that affected many lives in a small town then this movie is well worth seeing. One of the main things I took from this movie is that you may hear people say, "winning is the only thing that matters." Well, the puts into perspective that you can be behind on the scoreboard and still be winners by sticking together as a team.

I will probably hit a few more movies in the next few weeks. There are several that I would like to see. The movies are a good place to sit back, relax, and get away for a couple of hours.

We are running an "upgrade" special at Dale Jarrett Racing adventure for anyone that has received a DJRA gift over the holidays. Call 1-888-GO-RACE-1 for more details. Ask for the "Full Throttle Living" discount and receive $44 off of any package worth $395 and above. Visit www.racingadventure.com for more information. Have a Happy New Year!

December Update

Every December I loose touch with racing news. I did not even watch the banquet. There has been a lot going on with Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure so I have just been going in everyday and trying to make some sales. December is a huge month for the school. The only news I have even heard lately has been that Jimmy Johnson broke his wrist. Things like that happen but I guess being the Nextel Cup Champion makes that a big news story.

The most positive news I have heard is that Matt Borland is going to be dad's crew chief. I think the chemistry will be good and I like that both guys are coming in to a fresh situation after having tough seasons. The entire line up of crew chiefs over at MWR looks pretty good to me.

For me, I am still looking around for a spotting deal for next season. I would like to keep my foot in the door as a spotter. It was something that I enjoyed and could really relate to since I have driven before. Not to mention, I have had a few spotters as well. It is not much different than any other relationship within a team. The driver and the spotter must understand each other's lingo. That is probably why you see quite a few former drivers as spotters. There are also several pilots that are spotters. I guess I will know in the next month or so what I will be doing.

This time of year might seem quiet on the news front but I am certain that every team is working more hours than ever right now. New teams have to work on a little of everything and the established teams are hard at work on getting to the Daytona test in January. The sport has moved so fast that I probably don't even know what is going on. My guess is that most of the teams are set up to work on all aspects of the season all of the time.

Well, I am going back to the phones. I hope everyone has a good Christmas! Remember, there is still time to save your Christmas. Buy Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure gift certificates at www.racingadventure.com or by calling 888-GO-RACE-1.

Another November

I am probably the only one or maybe one of a handful that did not want this racing season to end. There are plenty of people that were so glad that this season was over. I am not trying to make anyone that wanted it to end feel any different because in recent years I have felt the exact same way.

For one, I really enjoyed working with my dad. I have been to the races for many years and at one point even worked on the Busch Series team that he owned. For some reason this year was different. I can't even figure out what was different about it. But, for the first time I really felt like I was contributing and helping him out at the same time. Before, I was so worried about being a driver that maybe I let that get in the way. Spotting really felt natural to me so I feel like there was a connection there as well. I feel a little selfish for being happy about my year when the team and driver did not have a good year at all. Maybe it was the fact that I was still able to be involved in racing again. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be driving in the right situation but I also enjoy being a part of a team as well.

Feeling like you are part of the team is important and the people on the team towards the end of the year made me feel as much a part of the team as any other member. Butch was a good communicator and I enjoy working with people that also enjoy their jobs, even if the season is not going the way you want it to. He knew he had some challenges in front of him but he made everyone feel like they were a contributor.

All weekend I kept hearing from people how ready they were for the year to be over. I only listened to most but there were a few that I spoke up and said that I really did not want it to end. That is the way it is when you are having fun and doing something you enjoy. After the last few years I am starting to realize how important it is to do something that is enjoyable and not just busy work. This year just felt refreshing. I guess the only bad thing is that the people that gave me the opportunity did not have a very good year. Well, now that it is over they can go to work on getting their fresh starts.

Every November seems to be the same. Now that racing is over for the year I will begin the search once again. November gets here and I feel like I start all over again. What am I going to do in December and January? This November is going to be much of the same. I am looking at all options for 2007. I will concentrate on the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure for November and December but I really want to spot for a driver again next year. It is a lot like driving, once you get a little taste of it you want to continue to do it. This will be a busy time trying to secure something for next season and I hope to be able to contact my list of possibilities in the next few weeks and have something in place for Daytona. Again, this is a lot like when searching for a ride.

Although I do not know where I will surface in the racing scene again I will be searching around to find the right fit. I have made some good contacts this year by being at the track so I will work hard to get back there for next season. I might say that November is always a stressful month but I would not know how to operate any different after doing it this way for so many years.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy the food and the football and we will be racing again before you know it.

The Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure has some exciting things happening. We have just added Sebring Raceway to the schedule for 2007. Plus, the Talladega Superspeedway is on the schedule every month in 2007. Check us out at www.racingadventure.com or call 888-GO-RACE-1 for more information.

Tough Day in Phoenix

I was really pumped up going into the race on Sunday at PIR. For about the last month I have felt that the chemistry has been working between the driver, crew chief, and spotter. We are the main three people on the radio and it has been working well. I remember when I was driving and when we could all get in synch, it usually made it easier to stay focused in the seat. I have also learned that experience is just as important from the spotter's stand as it is from the driver's seat. Fortunately, I was able to spot for Damon Lusk in the truck race and for Stanton Barrett in the Busch Series race. My thinking was that if I spotted for 150 laps on Friday night and 200 laps on Saturday then my best race should be on Sunday for the Cup race.

Each race seemed to have a totally different look. The truck race was filled with cautions but being at night, I did not feel like I could see as well as I could during the day. At some tracks, the night races are actually easier but I did not think this about PIR on Friday night. The NASCAR Busch Series race had its share of cautions but there everyone was spread out a little more. PIR is a hard place to pass so even if you were a little faster than someone you might have to work quite a few laps to make the pass.

Once Sunday got here I was excited and ready to work. I thought with the experience from the days before that I was ready. Maybe I was too pumped up because I do not feel like I did a very good job on Sunday. The 88 car was really good on long runs but it would not go at the beginning of a run. He just could not go on restarts. I even asked at one point if I could do anything different to help on the restarts. Normally, I would just let him tell me but the reason that I felt like it might be something I could tell him is because on some of the restarts, the low lane would go and on others, the top lane would go. DJ said everything was good so I just kept an eye out for anything in front of him.

This week there was another series of events that just made the day get long for the crew. On one of the cautions the car directly in front of him blew an engine and put oil on the windshield. He had to stop and get a tear off pulled so he could see. Next, there was a crash in turn one that I was able to see and help him avoid. The only damage in this one was some flat spotted tires when he spun avoiding this accident. He had it missed but he said there might have been too much rear brake in the car. The third and final event happened down in the middle of turns 3 and 4. I still have not seen a replay but here is what I saw: The cars directly in front of the 88 got together and as one of the cars spun back up the race track we were pinched between that car and the wall. The 88 slammed the wall hard and was not able to continue.

This is the second time this year that a crash has happened directly in front of him. I am not sure what I could have said but I feel like I missed a call. Even my buddy asked me on the way home, "why did you not tell him to go low?" I don't have a real good answer other than when something happens right in front of you it is not the same as something happening 10 or 12 cars in front of you. My reaction time must have been off yesterday. I really don't know!

This is similar to what happened to McMurray at Atlanta. Maybe I should go back and watch that race again to see what his spotter was saying when Gordon was slowing in front of him. I think anytime your car wrecks you feel like there is something that you could have done different but I know from being in the seat that you don't have much time to react.

Well, we will pick up and move to Homestead-Miami Speedway where there will be a ton of action. All three of NASCAR's Champions will be crowned this weekend. There will be plenty of action with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title and the Nextel Cup Series title to be determined in their final race of the season.

It is hard to believe that we are just around the corner from the holidays again. The Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure (www.racingadventure.com) is now offering a holiday special of $44 off of all packages. This is a limited time offer so call 888-GO-RACE-1 to place your order. You can find pricing and ordering information at www.racingadventure.com.

DJ Drives to Front

The Atlanta Motor Speedway has always been a good track for Dale. Only he knows what it is that fits his style. I think he does great on tracks that you can race the race track. What I mean by that is you have different grooves to find during the course of the race. You also have a lot of room in Atlanta to move the car around and find what is comfortable for the car and driver. Being able to move around on the track also gets you out of some of the dirty air the other cars create. He and the UPS team had a solid run.

It was impressive from the spotter's stand to watch dad come through the field. Early in the race he had a pit road speeding penalty but was able to drive to around fifteenth. The early part of the race went caution free so the leaders were able to put a lot of cars a lap down. Luckily, the 88 was able to get the "free pass" on one of the early cautions. This is when it got impressive from my view. He had to start at the end of the longest line (that is the rule if you are the "lucky dog.") on the restart but he did not stay there long. After a few laps his car would come to him and he would start picking the cars off in front of him. He has always been good at saving tires and equipment so I think that helps him at AMS as well. He drove from the back to eight place by the end of this run.

I thought he was going to make it to the top 5 but as the sun started going down the track was changing and the car seemed to get a little too loose. He was still not bad but he leveled off around 12th or thirteenth.

I think the car and driver were still good enough to make it into the top ten but a late accident would spoil those hopes. The last ten laps had to be spent just making it to the end. There was a multiple car accident in turn one that damaged the car. If there would have been more than ten laps left the good run would have been over. The UPS Ford Fusion finished 11th.

The team is doing a good job. It is nice to see that everyone is still working towards getting into the top 20 to finish out the season.

After the race was over I was able to go with dad to watch the Panthers and Cowboys play Sunday night football. I am a Cowboy's fan so the day just kept getting better for me. I know Carolina needed a win but I have always been a Dallas fan and always will be. I will pull for Carolina on any other week.

The Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure visits the Talladega Superspeedway again this weekend and next weekend. There are still spots available for November 11 and 12. Call 888-GO-RACE-1 or visit www.racingadventure.com to book your spot now. The holidays are coming fast!

Washed Out at AMS

The rain has been coming down all day. The teams are still hard at work getting their cars through the inspection process but they will not see any on track activity today. Qualifying has been cancelled and the cars will start Sunday’s race according to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series rule book (car owner’s points). Everyone was talking about the rain last night so it was no surprise to anyone. The weather looks good for the rest of the weekend.

The teams still have to work on their cars but I am sure that it makes it a little more laid back when they know that the weather is going to keep them off the track for the day. For the most part the teams have their cars ready when they get to the tracks. On Fridays they go through the NASCAR inspection area to be approved for on track activity. Tomorrow they will hit the garage area running.

I am going to be spotting for Damon Lusk in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race tomorrow. It will give me some good practice for Sunday. This will be Damon’s second start in the #25 Woodard Racing truck this season. I remember Damon always ran well in the ARCA/ReMax Series at AMS. He has enough experience to give his truck a good run here this weekend.

The NASCAR Busch Series is at Memphis Motorsports Park this weekend. It will be interesting to see if the weather affects any of the Cup guy’s plans on traveling back and forth. They probably got out of Atlanta this morning.

The races at AMS always seem to be exciting at the end. I am sure this weekend will be more of the same great finishes we have seen here in the past.

The Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure (www.racingadventure.com) is having a 2 day retail event at the Kansas Speedway this weekend (October 28 and 29). I hope the weather will allow everyone that has signed up to go out and have a great time. The 2007 schedule is now posted online. Get your gift certificate today! Call 888-GO-RACE-1 or visit www.racingadventure.com to place your order. Mention this blog and receive a 5% discount.

Martinsville Survival

DJ survived yesterday at Martinsville Speedway. There is not much more to say about his day but I will give you an idea of everything that the UPS team had to endure on the weekend.

Friday was the most uneventful day: Practice for 90 minutes and qualify. Well the practice did not go bad but the speed just was not there. The car was not far off but it only takes being off about a tenth of a second at Martinsville to drop you about 10 spots. That is not exact but it is close, just to give you an idea of how close and competitive it is. They drew an early number for qualifying and that probably hurt as they qualified in the back of the pack. Once qualifying was over the weekend got interesting.

In Saturday’s practice sessions the emotions tipped both ends of the scales. During the first one hour session, the UPS Ford Fusion posted a speed in the top 5. I felt good about the car at that point, but I am just the spotter. What do I know? The second and final practice was not near as kind. The car did not seem to run as well from the beginning of the final session. The racing business has a way of slowing you down just when you think things are going your way. About halfway through this final practice the car’s brakes started fading and in turn one caused DJ to loose control going into turn three and just brushed the wall with the left front corner. The damage was minimal but it takes a time and effort that you would spend on getting the set up better to fix the cosmetic damage. The team had to immediately work on fixing the damage. Practice was over.

I don’t know where to begin for the race but Sunday was probably the busiest day I have had as a spotter. This is the condensed version. The car was making good progress and staying on the lead lap when an accident occurred going into turn 3. The UPS car was caught up in what appeared to be a famous Martinsville chain reaction wreck. He was about the fifth or sixth car in line and probably got the worst of it. Heck, I might not have caught it in time for him to get stopped. That is what he thought. He asked me to pay attention on the restarts and he would take care of the cars around him. I thought I was watching ahead but I will say things seemed to work better after making the adjustment he wanted made. The car was damaged enough that they lost one lap while making repairs. The crew did a great job of keep their composure and getting the car back in competitive form. He was involved in another accident a short time later that I know Ken Schrader got the worst end of. The 06 car just made a bad choice and got into him damaging the 21, 88, and 06. This accident took some timely cautions and organized pit work to keep from going more laps down, but they stayed on top of it and actually got the lap back. The end result was a hard fought 16th place finish.

It was a rough day for DJ and many others but it is Martinsville. A tight little half mile that has had the same things going on for many years: torn up cars, hurt feelings, and survival.

With the holidays coming up visit www.racingadventure.com to purchase a gift certificate or buy some laps for dad. Log on or call 888-GO-RACE-1 for more details. Mention that you read this blog and get 5% off of your purchase.

Homestead Testing

I spent last Monday and Tuesday at the open test for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Testing generally is boring but it can pay huge dividends for the teams.

It has been a year since I have driven a race car but after watching and spotting for the testing at Homestead it feels like it has been 5 years. It seems like everything has changed. The NASCAR testing rules have changed, the tire rules have changed, and the cars have changed. The set ups of the cars are much different now and the technology (data acquisition) is on every car. I was only able to use data acquisition in a couple of times in my driving career.

Being the spotter at the test is the same as the race: I just try to keep the driver in safe positions as all of the teams work on their cars. It is pretty boring but I made the most of it by timing as many of the cars and recording the times so I could learn which cars were better than others.

Testing is a different beast. Everyone is on their on agenda. Some teams are testing for long runs and others are making qualifying runs. There is not much action that you can actually see during testing but you can bet that teams are paying attention to what other teams are trying.

The Homestead test was the last NASCAR scheduled test for the 2006 season. Teams will continue to test at places that do not hold NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races.

Thanks for stopping by to read the “Full Throttle Living” blog.

The Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure (www.racingadventure.com) can put you in the driver’s seat. Visit our website or call 888-GO-RACE-1 to see our schedule, tracks, and pricing information.

You can also send an email to jason@jasonjarrett.com and request information.

Short Night for DJ

Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway things turned bad early for DJ and the UPS Ford Fusion team. After avoiding a lap one crash involving several cars things only got worse. The car was running good and in normal DJ fashion he was taking his time picking through traffic. There was an early incident on pit road with the 41 car. Reed was leaving his pits and DJ was entering his and they collided. There was minimal or no damage to the 88. Not too many laps after the pit road incident the 41 got into the back of the 88 in between turns 3 and 4. There was much more damage this time. The 88 was spun around and put out of the race for the rest of the night. It was only lap 34!

It was a tough year at Lowe's for DJ. He did not even complete a lap in the 600 mile race and this one he only made it 34 laps. Lowe's, When it was call Charlotte Motor Speedway, used to be a place that was on the top of the list for him.

I am sure they will deal with each other in a professional manner and they will move on.

The RYR team had been gaining momentum in the last several weeks. I know it probably took a little out of them but they will recover and pick back up at Martinsville.

Thanks for reading my blog. Visit our website (www.racingadventure.com) for details on how you can experience "Full Throttle Living." You can join us at some of the most popular tracks on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Circuit.