Over The Wall

Victory junction gang camp

  Today I'm really feeling my age.  Its the day after a 4 hour trip up to the Victory Junction Gang Camp and I'm so sore its not funny.  This is the second time the 12 car has gone up there and it gets better every time.  The kids are so energetic and the counselors are non stop.  We got a tour of the facility and interacted with the kids for a couple of hours and even got to do some kick ball and go in a dunking booth.  If you have never checked this place out you should.  The New facilities that were there since two years ago are the bowling alley and the kick ball arena.  Both are as cool as they sound.  We had a three inning kickball game against the older kids that ended in a 5 to 5 tie.  We all wanted over time but had to report to the mess hall for dinner.  After that we had the camp dance party which lasted about 30 minutes and then we headed out to the yard for some pit stops.  After the stops it was off to the dunking booth and just hanging out with the kids.  Its one of those experiences that you don't ever forget and it was so cool to be part of that.  If i can learn how to post some pictures ill post them on here.  thats all for now.

Starting over

  As depressing as it is that our driver is leaving, the worst part is that I have no clue who is taking his place.  You guys have heard the same rumors i have and there's nothing to really get fired up about.  When you build a team and relationships for years and then slowly its all gone it reminds you of how hard it was to get where you are, and now we have to start over again.  Im really curious to see where Newman ends up.  I think he has a good chance of having a Kyle Bush type year if he get s in the right place.  Let me re phrase that, i think he has a chance to have a really good year.  I dont think anyone will have a break out year like the one he is having now.  Any ways, back to our little problem over here.  I hope they announce pretty soon who our driver is going to be so we can start to look forward and make plans for next year.  At the moment we are all just going thru the motions untill the end of the year.  Looking on to Indy.  I really dont like this place.  I dont care about the tradition or the atmosphere or any of that.  Pit road is horrible and the area behind pit road to work in is terrible.  They put a fence up about 15 feet from the pit road wall which gives you no room to lay tires or work.  Go ahead and add on the 100 degree weather and you have one of my least favorite places to go.  Its early and im grumpy so i figured i'd bitch a little.  Hope everyone else is doing good.  Oh, my fishing trip was great.  We caught 24 makrel and the wife got sick and thru up over the side.  I guess it was a bad idea to take a 7 month pregnant lady with us.  Leave it up to me to screw that up, but she was a trooper. That s all for now.

Going to the beach

  This week is the only off weekend we have for a while now so i thought i would take the wife down to the beach for some fun in the sun.  After hearing the news Tuesday that we all knew was coming, its good timing to get away and enjoy something outside of racing.  Ryan told the team Tuesday that he wasn't coming back and it was kind of a sad day.  I really hate he s not going to be at Penske next year driving the 12 car.  Being a good friend of mine it was always fun going to the track knowing you had a chance to win every weekend.  Who ever they put in the 12 i hope can at least give us a hope of winning.  Oh well, i guess we ll all see what happens.  Tomorrow I'm going on a deep sea adventure with the wife and some friends of ours and hopefully ill have some pictures to post so you can see all or none of the fish we catch.  I'm leaving in about 10 minutes so everyone have a good week off and ill see ya next week.

A JULY 4th TRIBUTE EVERYONE SHOULD READ

  Generally speaking I try to keep politics out of my blog.  I couldn't help writing this one though because it means a lot to me and most people don't know how passionate I am about the soldiers that have served in country.  This idea for the blog started last night when I was watching a show that was a tribute to our armed forces.  It never fails to bring tears to my eyes whenever I watch these shows because it reminds me of all the things that we have.  I know this sounds a bit odd, being that I'm a sarcastic idiot most of the time.  This really is an area of which I have deep emotion towards.  One of my best friends from high school and still my best friend now is serving over in the war. He is stationed in Afghanistan.  He never complains, never cries or bitches, never has a bad thing to say about anyone, and he would do anything to help ensure that the freedoms that some take for granted will never be taken away.  Every year we get together to go skiing for one or two nights and we stay up all night talking about what it"s like to be involved in the military.  He's been positioned in Virginia, San Diego, North Carolina and now over seas.  He only has a few days off a year and he makes time to always see his family and me.  It just so happened that last year he was visiting the same day as Ryan's surprise 30th birthday.  I asked Krissie if she cared if I brought a good friend and she said absolutely not.  So long story short my buddy Kirk Anderson, got to meet Ryan, Krissie and lots of other people that are good friends of Ryan and Krissie.  Not once during the party did Kirk ever say he wishes he had this kind of life or that he wishes he wasn't serving his country.  It's guys like this that you just want to say THANKS to and let them know that what they are doing is appreciated.  I don't think soldiers get near enough credit for what they do.  It's funny, at all the tracks we go there are soldiers there and they always want to meet us and get pictures taken with us.  What we do is a joke in relation to what they go through as a soldier during a war.  I guess what bothers me is the fact that some people don't respect what a soldier does.  You look on the TV at night and see some hippies booing troops when they come home and I just want to punch the TV and tell the damn tree huggers that if it weren't' for the troops there might not be any trees to hug.  I'm not saying I agree with every war that has been fought by this country, what I am saying is that a soldier is a true HERO in my book.  Anyone willing to give up a good life and go to war deserves the respect of a hero.  Pat Tillman is a man with one of the greatest life stories I've ever heard.  He was a professional football player making 3 million dollars a year and dropped everything to go fight in the war following the 9/11 attacks.  That's the type people we should be talking about. He is just one example of someone giving up their life to make sure we can live ours.
  I hope this post wasn't too hard to follow, but when I get on to something I tend to just write and skip from subject to subject and story to story.  Excuse the flow of the blog and try and understand where I'm coming from.  I guess it's a lack of respect that makes me get so pissed about the whole thing.  In general the racing community is great towards the troops that show up at the tracks.  I see lots of drivers taking time out of the pre-race shows to go up and thank troops for the efforts and it makes me feel good to see the look on a soldiers face when Jr. tells them thanks for everything.  I guess my rant is over now but I just wanted to let everyone that reads this that is a soldier or has a family member involved in the war to know that I support you and THANK YOU for your efforts.