~Dover Journal~

Hi Y’all! I just want to start by saying thank you to everyone for all of the get-well wishes. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to write in and show your support for me. Man, y’all have been busy writing this weekend because I’m still trying to catch up on reading all of your posts on the message board. Thanks for not giving me too many LOLs because my sides are sore enough already! I am on my way to the Doctor today to get fitted for a flak-jacket for my very sore and tender ribs. Let’s talk about racing! For the first 180 laps, Dover was an absolute blast. Without a doubt it was our best race so far this season. My main goal for this race was to be patient. I knew if I did that the opportunities would present themselves for me to move to the front because we had a really strong car. Let me rephrase that, because saying we had a strong car doesn’t do that #45 Sprint Prepaid PhonecardSM Chevy justice. My car was absolutely awesome! I’ve been reading a lot of your messages praising Chris Hussey. Y’all are absolutely right at giving him a lot of credit because Chris had a great weekend as crew chief. He, along with the rest of the team, did an awesome job setting up that car. I knew on Friday that our car was going to be good for the race on Saturday. We weren’t the fastest car but the setup was about as close to perfect as you can get it. We improved our starting spot from the spring race by six positions, which isn’t necessarily a lot, but any little bit helps. That is what I like about returning to a track I have already run in the first part of the season, you already kind of know what your setup needs to be like. In the spring, we got caught up in a wreck early on in the race. That’s why the closer you can get to the front the better off you are because you have less chance in being a part of a wreck that could happen in front of you. In any case, the car was awesome on Saturday. I dropped a couple of positions at the start of the race but once I found the right line to run around the track, that #45 started heading to the front of the field. The Sprint Prepaid PhonecardSM Team had strong, quick pit stops all day long. On the first stop, which was a four-tire stop, we came back to the track in the seventh position. It was the next stop though that I will really never forget. Chris decided we should only take on right side tires. It was a little bit of a gamble, but I trust Chris and we had a really strong car and we were sure that there would be another yellow flag where we could come in and take on more tires. I really don’t know if I can explain to you the feeling I had when I came down pit road and took the lead after that second pit stop. Being that it was the first time I had ever led a Busch Series event I was really excited. Although I wasn’t up front for long before the cars with four fresh tires got around me, I knew that we had a really good chance of winning this race. I just tried to stay as close to the front as I could. When the caution flag fell again about thirty or forty laps later, we decided to stay out once again because we didn’t want to lose a lot of track position. We took the lead again in the race with about forty laps left and I knew since our tires were older we would have a hard time holding off guys like Casey, Lajoie and Green who were all quick and closing in behind me. We stayed in the lead for around twenty laps but I knew these guys had stronger cars than I did. Both Casey and Lajoie moved around me fairly easily, pushing me back to the third spot. It would have been foolish for me to race any of the cars that had fresher rubber as I was not in a position to challenge any of them too aggressively. I was trying to let the faster cars go, but when, where and “how” they passed me was up to them. As far as the wreck is concerned, I guess the one thing can say is that it was really disappointing. We had such a great race and the last thing I wanted to do was end up in the wall and out of the race. Anytime you wreck at Dover, it usually going to be pretty hard and ugly. I guess that’s why they call it the “Monster Mile”. The first hit I took was into the wall and that was a really hard hit. I got the air knocked out of me and got spun around pretty good, and when I finally got my bearings, there was Mike Skinner coming straight at me. Wow, that was intense since my car was pretty much stopped and he and Bobby Hillin were still moving at full speed. I feel bad that those guys got caught up into that wreck because they had nowhere to go. As a driver you know that you are supposed to keep the car up against the wall and out of the way of traffic. When you hit the wall that hard though, more times than not, you are going to shoot back down across the track. I want to say a special thank you to Mike Skinner who stood by me and talked to me while we waited for the track ambulance to arrive. I told him that my arm was numb and my neck was sore. He hurried the rescue crew over to me and talked to me while they pulled me out. Thanks for being there Mike! I knew that I was going to be fine but very sore. My elbow, hip, neck and especially my ribs have been really sore for the past couple of days. I feel a little bit better today but I am pretty happy that we don’t have to race this weekend because that gives me some more time to heal back to 100%. Don’t worry I will definitely be ready for Charlotte. Since I have had a taste of what it like to be up front, I am more determined than ever to get back to the front and stay there until the checkers fall. I’m hoping that is going to happen very soon. In any case, thanks for all of your support. I really have a lot of dedicated fans and at times like these that is a great thing to have. By the way, congratulations to all of you who answered the question from my last journal about who finished higher in the truck race, me or my dad. I beat Dad by one spot when I finished 10th at Richmond and he finished 11th at California. I was really surprised how many details y’all knew about both of those races. Watch for more of those questions in my journals later. Sometimes I think that y’all may know more than I do about Petty racing (LOL). In any case, everyone have a great week and I am going to try and get some rest and heal these muscles so that I will be ready to go for Charlotte. I’ll talk to you after that race and once again thanks for all of your support. God Bless and Thanks, Adam

Email: lilsqeek14@hotmail.com