~Gateway Journal~

First, let me start off by saying that I am really sorry about not having my journal posted earlier in the week. With the night race last Saturday at St. Louis, my early morning trip to Atlanta to do interviews on CNN/SI and throwing out the first pitch at the Braves Game on "Petty Appreciation Day", and a Friday race this week at Indy, my week has been cut really short. Plus some really cool things are going on with me this week. Some I will tell you about now and some will have to wait until later. As far as St. Louis, another awesome qualifying effort! My crew had my car dialed in again this weekend. I am real happy about the way our qualifying efforts have improved as the season has moved on. It really says a lot about how dedicated my crew is. I know I say it all the time but I have a great group of guys, who week in and week out, spend a lot of time making sure that I have a great car to take out every weekend. Starting third definitely had everyone in the Petty camp excited about our chances Saturday night. As far as the race goes, I was real excited about getting another shot to run at St. Louis. As ya'll probably know, St. Louis is where I started my Busch career and definitely one of my favorite tracks to visit. I think when you have raced on a track before, it helps you more mentally as a driver. It's like you know what to expect when the green flag drops. With this being my rookie season, a lot of the tracks on the schedule I have never raced on. You can get a feel of what the track is like during practice, but there is nothing like racing under the green flag. In any case, I didn't get the result I was hoping for on Saturday. For the first 50 laps, I was feeling good about the car and I stayed in the top 5 but then the car just started to go away from me. The car got really tight on long runs and that's when I started to slip back through the pack. Lance and the crew went to work during the pit stops to try and loosen the car up. After that second stop I think we really had started to get the problem under control. I really have to take the blame for what happened on around lap 134 with Curtis and me. That's just one of those mistakes all drivers make and I feel really bad for Curtis having to get caught up in it. It's just one of those learning experiences and it seems like I have had my share of those in my rookie season. In any case, I had another great qualifying run and I know the rest is soon to follow as we head in to Indy. I told ya'll earlier that I had some really cool things that happened this week. One of these was the Petty Family Day at the Atlanta Braves game on Sunday. The day was held to honor 50 years of Petty racing. Man, this was definitely an honor for me and my family. I have to say that the neatest thing was getting to throw out the first pitch with my dad and my granddad. I have to admit I was a little jealous because granddad got to stand on the pitchers' mound to throw his pitch, while dad and me were on each side of him. Guess I understand though, he is the King after all. (LOL) It was a great day, though, really hot but still a lot of fun. My granddad was real excited. He has always been a baseball and Braves fan since way back when the Braves were the only team in the Southeast. It was really cool to see players like Chipper Jones ask granddad for his autograph! Hey, be sure to check out the pictures on my page. There are some really good ones that I hadn't seen until I checked them out today. I am really sorry about my discussion page being down starting this past weekend. Trust me, I am as upset as all of you. I have to say, though, I have missed reading all of your posts. It sure does mean a lot each weekend to read how excited and supportive ya'll are before I climb into the car. At least I can still talk to ya'll and I know the webmaster is working really hard to get the page working again as soon as possible. Until then, I hope everyone is doing well and just know I can't wait to hear from you again. Another reason I can't wait for the discussion page to be back up is because the first Fan Club packages are being mailed this week. I can't wait to hear what numbers ya'll have and what you think about the Fan Club. I have to admit there is one person who already knows what their Fan Club Membership Number is. I know everyone is curious about who got the number 45? Well it's time to let the secret out. No, itís not me. My younger sister Montgomery Lee is the lucky one with AP# 0045. Guess she had a little bit of pull, huh? (LOL) I am also very excited to let you know that I will be a part of a major announcement this Thursday morning at the Brickyard. I will give you a lot more information about this announcement in my journal this weekend after the news is official. It will blow you away! That's about it for this week. As always, thanks for your prayers and get ready for Indy!!!! God Bless, Adam

Email: lilsqeek14@hotmail.com