~Milwalkie (South Boston) Journal~

Hi Y’all, After yesterday’s race, no one can accuse me of not being a ‘hot’ rookie driver!(LOL) Man, in all the years I have been driving racecars, not once did the heat get to me like it did yesterday. Actually, hot is not even the right word to describe what it felt like in that car yesterday; sizzling would be a much better description. With the temperature inside the car hovering around 160 degrees all day long, its no wonder I lost 13 lbs. during the race. To be honest, I wasn’t feeling very well from the moment I arrived at the track Sunday morning. It wasn’t that I was sick, I just didn’t feel 100%, you know? I’m sure that had something to do with my reaction to the intense heat. Making matters worse was the water that spilled (drinking water with a full-face helmet on as quickly as you can is tough let me tell you!) on my seat during our pit stop. Because it’s so dang hot in the car, that spilled water turns to steam real quick. Sitting on pure steam for an hour made the last 70 laps of the race extremely uncomfortable. All and all, I am proud just to say that I gutted it out and finished what I consider to be one of the most difficult races I’ve ever run. As for the race itself, I must say that I really liked the Milwaukee Mile; it’s like a short track and a superspeedway all rolled up in one. Despite our qualifying run, I felt we had a decent car; definitely capable of a top 20 finish. Unfortunately, a few bad breaks prevented us from finishing that way. On about lap 145, Butch Miller got into to me through 3 and 4 causing me to spin out. While I was fortunate to be able to avoid backing the car into the wall, I ‘flat spotted’ my tires in the process of pulling my car out of the spin. (Flat spotting is severe tire wear in one spot caused by locking up the brakes and skidding) Think of what happens to your car when you run over something that sticks to your tire (‘thump, thump, thump, thump…’) and you know exactly how difficult it is to drive at over 100mph on flat spotted tires. After getting fresh tires, I started battling my way back towards that top 20 that I knew we were capable of. I was all the way up to 25th on about lap 210 when Mark Green and I made contact. While it was really no one’s fault, just good old fashioned racing, the momentum forced me into the wall hard enough to cut my right front tire. The most frustrating part about the whole deal was that I was on the outside wall as I approached the entrance to pit row. Unable to get through traffic, I had to make another complete lap on a flat tire before I could finally get to pit row for a new tire. By the time I got back into the race, I was in 30th position on a lap by myself. At that point I just set my sights on overcoming the extreme heat and fatigue and finishing the race. As for Casey’s win, hey nobody is happier than me that he won. He definitely deserved to win. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Casey is a great driver! Of course a lot of the credit has to go to his team too; Casey had an awesome car to work with. To be honest, I am inspired by Casey’s win because, like y’all, I know that our day in victory lane is coming. Speaking of which, thanks for hanging in there with me and the rest of my team; slowly but surely we’re turning things around. For those that are wondering about my Granddad, he is doing very well. He is back to his normal weight and back on the job already. I think being at the track is probably the best medicine for the King. Thank God he was able to catch the problem early. Thanks as well to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I especially liked the suggestion encouraging people to donate blood. Man, I owe y’all a huge apology for the mix-up in my chat session last week. I will try to get better information to you about these links in all future chat sessions. In any case, I noticed that a lot of you missed out on the whole deal. Please know that we are in the process of setting up another chat session. I’m hoping to originate this chat from my web site to avoid confusion. I don’t know the specifics of when and where yet, but as soon as I do I’ll let you know. Believe me when I say that one of the highlights of my week was hearing from my fan club staff that your Club applications have started to roll in already! I know this sounds weird, but it still hasn’t completely sunk in that I have my own Fan Club. All I can say is that I am honored that y’all are so excited to join. I will personally see to it that y’all are not disappointed; It’s going to be the coolest Fan Club in NASCAR. I know y’all are dying to know which one of your suggestions we chose to incorporate into the Fan Club. I promise that I will let y’all know in my next journal who the TWO winners are of the lifetime membership award! Thanks for all of the birthday greetings; the big 19 is right around the corner! It sure worked out nice that I will have the day off on my birthday this year. Although a win this Saturday would have been the best birthday present I could ever ask for; that’s not to say I wouldn’t settle for a late birthday present (LOL). Thanks again for all of your love, support and prayers. Keep the faith and I’ll see y’all in Myrtle Beach (one of my all time favorite tracks!) God Bless, Adam

Email: lilsqeek14@hotmail.com