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.

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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.

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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.

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