~New Hampshire Journal~

Hi Y’All How was your weekend? It had to be better than mine! Talk about a frustrating day at the track; man, it felt like I had both hands tied behind my back all afternoon. I know that y’all are expecting a blow by blow account of the race but honestly, there is not much to say besides the fact that I just didn’t have a good racecar on Saturday. That tends to happen sometimes when you run a brand new car that has never been run or tested before. It is in no way the crew’s fault either. The car just would not respond to any of the adjustments they tried to make both prior and during the race. Exactly what was wrong with the car I can’t really say for sure. All I know is that it was extremely tight; so much so that it was almost impossible for me to get a good run through and, most importantly, comimg off the turns. Seeing how most of the passing at this track is done exiting hard off the turns, you can imagine how frustrated I was all afternoon knowing that, for all practical purposes, didn’t have the equipment to pass anyone. As if that weren’t bad enough, other driver’s were passing me like I was standing still. Man, that was a tough pill to swallow; especially when the lead pack passed me for the SECOND time sending me two laps down. I would be lying if I said that there weren’t times early in the race that I wanted to throw caution to the wind and try to work myself up to the front. Thankfully, I was able to resist that temptation and concentrate on just finishing the race, taking the points and moving on to Richmond. That patience paid off with those wrecks late in the race that allowed me to move from 31st into the top 25. My top 25 finish in turn moved our Spree Prepaid Foncard team up two spots in the points standings. We are now 15th! Immediately after the race, I was really frustrated and upset over our poor performance. But when I found out that our top 25 finish moved us into the top 15 in points, I felt a lot better. Suddenly it dawned on me that had I not been patient and accepting with our ill handling racecar, there’s no way we would be sitting pretty in 15th place in the points standing, that’s for sure! I think it would be very safe to say that I learned more about driving patience today than in all my previous races combined! In that sense, yesterday’s race may have very well been a huge blessing in disguise. In any case, enough talk about racing; I want to tell y’all about the two days I spent on my Dad’s Charity Ride. Actually the whole thing started prior to the race in Fontana with an appearance at the Mattel Children’s Hospital where my dad, the King and I visited some really sick kids suffering from terminal cancer. It brought a tear to my eye to realize that most of the kids we saw would probably never make it to adulthood. Yet, somehow these kids were able to look beyond that and stay positive. I think that really says a lot about the work that hospitals like this do and why it is so important for to continue to raise money so that organizations like this can continue to help these sick children. After spending some time with the kids, I can certainly see why my dad is so dedicated to this cause that’s for sure! Shortly after our hospital visit, we made our way over to Mattel headquarters for lunch, a tour and a huge autograph session. I think we must have signed over 5,000 autographs! Without a doubt, the coolest part was the tour; especially when we went into the design center. It was there that I saw some of the really cool new toys that Mattel is working on for next year. I even saw how they sew Barbie’s hair on her head! As for the actual Charity Ride itself, I was riding one of my dad’s bikes: a Harley Electra Glide (sweet bike!) We left Fontana Monday morning. Man, was it cold! I had my leather-riding chaps on and was still freezing. There were about 180 core riders (i.e. people that ride the entire/majority of the trip). Among them was a bunch of NASCAR drivers like K. Schrader, Front Row Joe, Robert Pressley, Steve Park, Lake Speed and others. My buddy Tim Fedewa and I rode together for a good portion of day. The celebrity that I got the biggest kick out of riding with was the guy (for the life of me I cannot remember his name) that played ‘Gilbert’ on ‘Revenge of the Nerds’. He was the nerd with the dark hair, taped glasses and that really obnoxious laugh, remember? I was cracking up when he did the laugh for me. Believe it or not, he left Hollywood and now works for Speedvision; still looks exactly the same though. In any case, we rode about 480 miles to the Las Vegas Motorspeedway on Monday. It was there that the core riders got to participate in The Richard Petty Driving Experience. Speaking of which, yes, I used to be an instructor at the Charlotte-based RPDE a few years ago. While I do not instruct there any more--I guess you can say I got promoted! -- I do recommend the Experience to anyone over 18 that is curious as to what it is like to drive a Winston Cup stock car. Like I mentioned before, those interested in actually becoming a race car driver, should look beyond the Experience into actual racecar driving schools. After getting caught up on some well-needed sleep, we left Vegas at about 7:30 am on Tuesday morning. Our first stop was breakfast at a local Harley Davidson dealer; pretty uneventful. From there we rode on through the mountains of Colorado; man was it COLD! I had to break out my electric heated driving suit just to stay warm. What a scene it was when we all stopped for gas in the tiny town of Alpine, CO. 180 plus riders, support vehicles, cars that were following us; man, we just took over the entire town! They’re probably still taking about us in Alpine. Later that night, we arrived at our second destination point in Las Cruces. After having some dinner, and signing a bunch of autographs, (hey Jason, don’t thank me for the use of my Sprint PCS phone in the restaurant, thank Sprint. Man, that Sprint PCS phone is awesome; I think I’m hooked for life on the quality and convienencce it provides!) After dinner I was happy just to get to my room and catch up on some well-needed sleep. I left Wednesday morning and flew directly to New Hampshire to begin preparing for Saturday’s race. I am really looking forward to catching the conclusion of the Charity Ride at my parents house where Willy Nelson will perform on a special stage in our back yard (we have a really big back yard!) All and all, it was a privilege for me to be involved in the event, even if it was only for a couple of days. I am so proud of my Dad for putting this whole deal together; especially after meeting the kids it was designed to benefit. Being a part of my Dad’s charity event this week really got me thinking how important it is for me to help others through the creation of a cool charity event of my own. If y’all have any suggestions, I would be very interested in hearing about them. I was really glad to read that y’all enjoyed the Up Close & Personal feature on my Mom. Y’all are absolutely right in that she is a truly wonderful person. There’s absolutely no way I would be where I am today without her constant love, support and guidance; I thank God every day for her presence in my life. You know the funny thing is, my Mom is absolutely ‘terrified’ with computers. That’s not all bad though because I plan on personally walking her through the feature as a Mother’s day gift! Thank you all for your incredibly kind compliments concerning her feature; showing her your comments will make the gift even more special! For those curious about my personal and showcar appearances, you will be happy to know that we are in the process of creating a special section on the site devoted to that very thing. Same thing with the Fan Club; there will be a special section on the site containing all the information you need to join and exactly what kinds of cool things are included in my Fan Club. My marketing guys tell me that both of these items will be up and running on the site next week so keep your eyes peeled. For those that are curious about what my test car looks like, scroll down the Fast News section and you will find a short story with pictures from my test in Atlanta. Finally, I want to apologize once again to all those who have requested that I personally e-mail them back. As much as I would like too speak to you all personally, please understand that I just do not have the time to respond to everyone. I mean just wouldn’t be fair to respond to some and not others, you know? That’s a big reason why I write these journals. It’s like writing a 100 personal letters in the time it takes to write one. As for your letters on the discussion page, believe me when I say that I read each one of them. So in a very real sense, we are communicating with each other, you know? As far as that goes, I feel your love, support and encouragement loud and clear! Y’all will probably never fully understand what it means to me to always be one click away from that kind of positive energy. It reminds me of a line from Jerry Maguire (great movie) that goes something like “you count on me like I count one you.” In any case, make sure to set those VCR’s because I have ‘that feeling’ again that something special is going to happen in Richmond under those bright lights. Have a great week y’all! God Bless, ADAM

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