~Richmond Journal~

Hi Y’all! First off, let me just say I had an awesome weekend! No, the Busch race didn't give me the results I was looking for but anytime I can race 450 laps instead of just 250 laps it's a reason to be excited. Running the truck race and the Busch cars definitely makes for a busy weekend but it was absolutely worth it. Richmond is a pretty special track for my family. It's where my dad got his first win and now it's where I ran my first truck race. Speaking of that truck race, man those things are fun to drive. I had an absolute blast in the No. 34 Dodge. Before the race started, everyone wanted to know if I was nervous about driving a truck since I had not had a lot of practice. The answer to that is absolutely not! I couldn't wait for the race to start on Thursday night. It was something I had never done before but I knew I always wanted to try because they looked like they would be a lot of fun. You can't really compare them against the Busch cars I've been driving all season. The motors have a lot more power which makes going in and out of the turns different, plus aerodynamically they're like night and day. But when it comes right down to it, if something has four tires on it and I can get out on a track and race against other drivers and be competitive, I'm all for it. Tenth place was pretty good for my first try - don't you agree? Chris Hussey, my spotter for the race, really helped me out a lot. He suggested that I try and run a higher line around the track than I had been running. Great call by him because as soon I as I tried it I really started picking up some positions. We were much better on long green flag runs so I didn't care for all the caution flags we had. Another thing was the rain. I know it was just four laps we didn't get to race, but you never know what could happen in four laps. Looking back though, it may have helped us because some of the guys behind me picked up fresh tires. They were starting to close in on us since we had our tires on for about 60 laps at that point. I want to say thanks to everyone in my Granddad's truck shop who worked so hard to get the truck ready for us. They really put together a great ride for me to drive, especially when they had to focus on getting the No. 43 Dodge ready too. There were a couple of times when Jimmy Hensley and I were running nose to tail during the race. That was pretty cool to run against another Petty entry. It had to be awesome for my Granddad to look out there and see two Petty trucks fighting it out. I hope there are other opportunities in the future for me to run more truck races. There are a lot of talented drivers in the Truck Series, just like in the rest of NASCAR, and anytime I get to run against them is a great experience for me. Speaking of truck races, did I fool y'all in my journal last week? Last week, I wrote that I was the first Petty to drive in a truck race. Well I thought all those Kyle Petty fans out there would be all over me cause my Dad raced a truck race in 1997. Just a little something to see if anyone is paying attention and who really knows their Petty racing history. I was really surprised that no one made a big deal over it, so maybe no one reads the journals as carefully as I thought. (LOL)! Let's see just how much y'all know about our family. Maybe you can help my Dad and I settle a family trivia question. Can anyone out there tell me who finished higher in their first truck race, Dad or me? While you are at it, where did Dad run his first Truck Race? In any case, the truck race was not the only thing going on. I'd rather talk about that finish though because I like the results better than the ones in the Busch Series race. Let me start by saying I had a great car for the Busch race. I know everyone probably gets tired of hearing me say that but it's the truth. I believe you give credit where credit is due and I always want to make sure I do that. My team did a great job setting up the car. I'll be honest starting 43rd is no fun but it's better than the alternative which is not to start at all. Just like the truck race, that No. 45 Chevrolet was better on long green flag runs. Another similarity to the truck race is the line I ran around the track. It seemed that the higher line worked well for us again. That's one of the reasons I wanted to run the truck race was for the seat time in the car and on the track. It ended up helping us in the Busch race to already some knowledge of how the track was running that weekend. So what happened with the wreck? Well it was nobody's fault (I'm sure y'all get tired of hearing me say that too but in this case it's the truth.) We were trying to work our way back up through the field after our pit stop and when I came around the track and saw Hamilton, Jr. sitting there in the middle of the track I had no where to go so that I wouldn't have hit anyone else. There was a car inside of me, a car outside of me, a car stopped in front of me, and no time to slow down or get out of the way. You know what that equals? A big wreck! Plus after I hit the rear of Hamilton, Jr. another car got into my right side and sent me spinning to the bottom of the track. The thing that is the most disappointing is that I felt we had a Top 10 or even a Top Five car and we were making up a lot of ground moving to the front of the field. Overall though I am really encouraged by our performance in both races this weekend. Like I said we finished tenth in the truck race and we made it to the Top 15 in the early laps of the Busch race before we caught up in the wreck. We'll carry these good runs into Dover in two weeks and get ready to do it all over again, hopefully we will end up with different results. Next week is an off week which is always nice but I am ready more than ever to get back behind the wheel so in a lot of ways I wish we were heading to Dover right now. In any case, hope everyone enjoyed seeing me run double duty at Richmond and I hope a lot of y'all will make it out to Dover for the race. Have a great couple of weeks and hopefully the next time I talk to you will be from Victory Lane in Dover! God Bless and Gummy I love you, Adam