Big Announcement

I don't even know if people are interested or not but I try to keep the blog updated. Sometimes I let other things get in the way. I normally use it as a bit of stress relief but I have had a lot going on lately so I have let it slip for the past few weeks. These weeks are going by so fast that I can't keep up. It pretty much says that my time management skills are not very good.

A lot of things have happened since I last checked in with you. There has been a huge announcement that you have already heard about. I know many of you emailed me asking me questions that I didn't even know the answers to at the time of your emails.

The big happened during the week of the Lowes Motor Speedway events. DJ announced his retirement plans. This was October 12, 2007 and Ned Jarrett's birthday. I know, it seems so weird that dad's career as a driver is coming to an end. He is the kind of person that knows himself and I think he is really at peace with his decision. In my opinion, I really haven't seen it publicized too much. The only things I read about it were when the media was speculating on what DJ's plans were going to be. There should have been a press conference for him to announce his plans alone and then let the team, sponsors, and owners lay out their plans to the media. I know he is my dad but I would have to say this about any of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers that would be making an announcement of this magnitude. Of course I look at it with a bit of bias but he deserved to get more out of his announcement than he received. For all I know the announcement went just the way he wanted it to. Maybe he wanted the team, sponsor, and owner to have their announcements at the same time. The more I think about it that sounds just like him by being a complete team player.

He will run the Bud Shootout, the 50th running of the Daytona 500, plus the next four points races of 2008. His final event will be the non-points event at the Lowes Motor Speedway, the All Star Race. This plan will help to get the #44 UPS Toyota Camry as close to the top 35 in points as possible. He will have his valuable past champion provisionals for the first five events just in case they are not able to make the field by qualifying on time. With the progress they have been showing I don't think they will have to use those provisionals. Their finishes might not show it but the 44 team has made steady improvement. Don't base it off of what you see in the final standings. This team is a great group of people and it has been really interesting to see the progress they have made since Daytona. There new driver will enjoy working with such a professional team of people.

I want to say that it has been huge honor to work with my dad for the past two seasons. When we went to Dover last year for my first race with him neither one of us knew what to expect. I had never been a spotter at the Cup level and I had never spotted for him at any level. You never really know who is going to workout as a spotter until you give them a try. He was gracious enough to give me a try and I think it has really worked out well. Now that we are two years into it I think we both have grown to trust one another as if we had worked together for many years. When I look back I will never forget that I had the opportunity to be a part of his final full time season as a NASCAR champion. It won't matter how many races we won working together or anything like that it will only matter that we were able to work together for a few years. Many of you probably know that working with family can be terrible or great. Well, I can say my time was great!

I am not sure what the future holds for me as a spotter but I feel like I have proven that I can spot at that level. Hopefully, in the next few weeks I can fill you in on my future plans for being at the track and on the roof.

As always thanks for reading. I will try to be a little more consistent as stories come to my mind.

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