Bristol Changes Impressive

I am here to let you know just how I felt about the new surface at Bristol Motor Speedway. The view that I had from the roof Thursday through Saturday was impressive right from the start of Busch Series practice on Thursday. Not only were there very few practice crashes there were cars searching out more and more grooves as each hour of practice past by. As you can tell I was excited about what was to come for the rest of the weekend.

Friday was a long day. We started off with two more hours of Busch Series practice at 9A.M. and end the night with the Busch Series race that night around 10P.M. The Cup Series practiced and qualified on Friday too.

With DJ running both the Busch Series race and the Cup Series race he had a busy weekend. It was a special weekend with UPS celebrating their one hundredth anniversary. DJ was able to qualify for both events. Winning the events would have made the weekend better but with the way the year has gone making both events had to relieve some pressure.

For the Busch race I stuck with spotting for my regular Busch Series driver Kyle Krisiloff. It was an eventful night and I have to admit that I found myself looking to see how dad was running every now and then. I was able to concentrate and keep Kyle out of trouble most of the night. He did a real good job in this event. They might not have been the fastest car out there but he drove one of the smartest races that I have seen him drive. The Walgreens/Lilly Ford finished 26th on the lead lap. A lot of you might be wondering why I didn't spot for dad in this race. It was really a simple answer: I made a commitment to the 14 car at the beginning of the year and I wanted to stick to my commitment. This was a one time event for dad this year.

The Busch Series race looked exciting to me. Not only was the finish exciting but the racing was tight all night and the drivers didn't have to knock each other out of the way to make passes. My main observation about the track on Friday night was that the drivers didn't have to rely on a perfect handling car. They could find a groove that their car worked well in and hammer down. If their car worked good on the bottom they ran there if not they found a groove in the middle or up top. Another thing that I observed was that since this was not a one groove track the drivers that were having an off night could move out of the way a little easier than what they could in the past at Bristol. There were a few wrecks but most of those were because someone had a part failure or simply made a mistake. It was good racing!

On Saturday the Cup Series rolled off at BMS. I was nervous as H! As the laps clicked off I calmed down and just did my job. The Friday night race made me a little nervous because there were guys putting cars in places that normally don't work at BMS. Also, I think I always get a little more nervous at the first of a race when I am spotting for dad.

The UPS Toyota had a long night but there were plenty of drivers and teams that had to fight hard all night. I don't think people believe me when I tell them that it is harder to run 30th than it is to run 5th. The guys racing you further back in the field are just as mad about running 30th as you are so they will not give you an inch. When you make it to the top five there is a little more give and take.

I saw a lot of great racing on Saturday night but after the event I stayed at one of the local campgrounds. We all sat around discussing the racing as we saw it. I guess you call it playing Monday morning quarterback or in this case Sunday morning crew chief. I met a lot of really nice people but it seemed we had a different few of how I thought the race went and how they thought the race went. They all were ticket holders so I couldn't argue too much with them. There were several people that I talked with that said they liked the race but they felt is was somewhat boring. I disagree. I saw some good racing going on every lap of that race. I think many of them wanted to see wrecks. Although none of the people I talked to openly admitted that I believe that is why they thought parts of it were boring.

My breakdown of things are different. You see, in Nextel Cup racing you have 43 of the most talented race car drivers driving as hard as they can every week. That is why they compete at the highest level of stock car racing. They are the best! They have the best mechanics, engineers, and crews putting their cars together so you see fewer and fewer part failures every week. The last thing is the people who designed the new layout at BMS did a great job. They made the track a better racetrack without it being a one grooved "bump and run" kind of track. The one thing that might make the Cup race better is might work for Cup racing a many tracks: make the races shorter. I believe that the Cup races become boring to fans because they are too long. The Busch race was shorter and perceived as more exciting. I saw all of the same things happening on Saturday that I did on Friday but the Saturday night race might of lost some peoples attention. So, just give that some thought as we move into the Chase.

The Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure visits Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. If anyone out there wants to experience "Full Throttle Living" make your reservations to drive a race car today at www.RacingAdventure.com. You can also call 888-GO-RACE-1 for more information.

Thanks for reading and I will see you next time!
Jason A. Jarrett

Good Run Slips Away at Pocono

We are still sitting on the runway waiting to take off and my mind keeps reflecting back to the race today.

I don't know but I am sure the television broadcast didn't show the progress the 44 made on the track today. It was exciting from my seat.

When the green flag dropped DJ started moving forward and never looked back. He drove from 40th to 19th before going behind the wall to replace the fuel pump.

Let me think about it for a minute...

I remember watching him pass a lot of good cars as he made his moves into the top twenty. Normally I wouldn't just come out bragging but I think a little bragging is needed after this one. At some point in the race he passed every other Toyota in the field. He made a couple of three wide moves that he hadn't been able to do in a while. The car was racing good and the driver had confidence. Funny how someone can just suddenly learn how to drive again.

The crew did a great job on pit road and by what I could hear the adjustments were small. That usually means the driver and crew are pretty comfortable in what they have for a race car.

DJ doesn't need me to defend him. His record speaks for itself. One thing that I am tired of is people asking me questions about him that they would never say to his face. Don't question any driver's competitiveness based on how much he gets so called "fired up." I can tell you from my own experiences of driving a race car that just because you raise your voice on the radio doesn't mean you are more competitive than the next guy. Most of the time the guy that is being loud is losing his focus. Some may not but most of the drivers know yelling on the radio doesn't gain you anything on the track.

After today's performance I would just watch what DJ can do with a car that feels like he wants it to feel. Now that I have that out of the way, let's go racing.

I think writing this has helped me cool down a little. A couple of times today I was having to calm myself down. To me, it was classic DJ. He just kept quietly moving forward and picking cars off. His car seemed to get faster the longer he ran and the others were slowing down and back pedaling right to him.

Hopefully things will continue to get better as the circuit moves to Watkins Glen next Sunday.

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