~Darlington Journal~

Hi Y’all! I hope that everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. Hopefully everyone got some rest and enjoyed their three-day weekend. For me there really isn’t much time for rest as the crew and I get ready to head out for Richmond this weekend. As y’all have probably heard already, I have a busy week in front of me as I will run double the laps on the track at Richmond but we will talk more about that later. As far as this past weekend goes, what did y’all think about the race at Darlington? I’ve been reading some of the posts on the message board that were talking about my dancing skills as far as Prom and Homecoming is concerned. Well the only dancing I did this past weekend was with the “Lady in Black” (for those of y’all that don’t know that’s a nickname for Darlington Raceway). Darlington is definitely a different type of track where you have to race the track itself and not the other drivers. For the drivers that can be really tough sometimes because we are really competitive with one another. At Darlington the track is your toughest competitor and you have to respect that because if you don’t you will probably end up going home with a beat-up racecar. My guys reminded me all weekend just to race the track and run my line while hitting all of my marks in the turns. This is the only way you will survive running Darlington and it worked really well for us in the race on Saturday. Right off the truck on Friday we were not as fast as we needed to be to qualify for the field. We made a lot of adjustments during the morning practice but our times didn’t really show us improving any. With 54 cars attempting to qualify, there is some pressure to be quick especially with a lot of the Cup drivers trying to get into the race. After our second practice, we still weren’t as fast as we needed to be but I was comfortable with the car and ready for qualifying. We were the 50th car to qualify and that was lucky for us because the clouds started to roll in which helped cool down the track a little. Man, I felt good about my two qualifying laps as soon as I was finished. Our speed jumped up almost three mph and I knew we were quick enough to make the field. As far as the race goes, there is nothing like coming to a Busch race and seeing the Winston Cup points leader starting right beside you. I was definitely excited about Dale Jarrett starting beside me because it gives me a chance to see how I can run against the guys that I will hopefully be competing against full time in the next few years. I have to admit it was pretty great feeling to pass Jarrett in the early part of the race. Not many rookies in the Busch series can say that they passed the Cup Points leader. In any case, we really had a good race. After falling back to 26th or 27th place, we worked ourselves back through the field for a 15th place finish. We were the highest placing Rookie team for the second week in a row and that shows some consistency for the team, which is really important. In any case, our focus has turned towards Richmond. For those of y’all who may not have heard I will be running an entry in the Craftsman Truck Series on Thursday night as well as the Busch Series on Friday night. For the truck race, I will be driving the No. 34 Dodge sponsored by Sprint Prepaid Phonecard (TM) and Dodge. Man I can’t tell you how excited I am about this opportunity to get to run two races this weekend in Richmond. In my mind, this experience can do nothing but help me. As a driver, you learn something every time you take the track if its practice, qualifying, or a race. So by doubling my time on the track, I will gain more insight on Richmond because every lap is experience. The trucks are different than running a Busch car in a lot of ways. Obviously their aerodynamics are very different, but also how and when you get into the gas and on the brake is different too. The best way I can think of to describe the trucks is that they are like Winston Cup cars but instead they have a truck body on them. I haven’t run in a truck at Richmond yet but I did run a couple laps last year in Milwaukee. Since my granddad owns his own truck team, we have had some help from those guys on setups and how the trucks run at Richmond. So I hope everyone will be able to tune in this weekend for both of my races because it will be the first time a Petty has driven in a truck race. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and I can’t wait to read and hear what y’all have to say about both of the races this weekend. It will definitely be interesting. Thank you as always for your support and prayers. I will talk to you soon, hopefully from Victory Lane (maybe twice!) God Bless, Adam

Email: lilsqeek14@hotmail.com