Joe Gibbs Driven

It's awesome to start off the season with a win, especially since we were able to bring Toyota their first win at All-American Speedway in this series.

The weekend started off with the grueling Wednesday afternoon cross-country plane flight. The entire crew, Crew Chief Ryan and Crew Members Travis, Herman, and Alex, had worked extremely hard to have the new car, which was built by Jeff Schrader and his crew at The Racecar Factory, near-finished by the time I arrived on Thursday. We spent Thursday morning in the shop putting the final touches on the car for a test on Thursday afternoon. The test went very well, as I was again able to use the data gained from our Aim Data Acquisition System to find more speed in the chassis. We also made some drive train gains, as tried a new Holley Carburetor from Willy's Carb and Dyno Shop, which was a definite improvement.

Friday was spent getting tires ready for race day and going over the car with a fine tooth comb. I built two new Penske shocks for race day, again using the Aim data from our test, while Ryan and the crew bled the brakes and checked every nut and bolt on the car. By the time Friday night rolled around, we were confident that we had a car that was ready to win.

On Saturday morning we rolled the car onto one of BMR's set-up plates to complete the preparations, loaded the car and equipment into the trailer, and headed to the racetrack. We arrived at the track, unloaded the car, set up the pit area, and went through the inspection line. As I climbed into the car for the first round of practice, I thought to myself, "This is it. Winter's finally over. Here we go!" After scuffing (running new tires for the first time) our qualifying tires in, we put our practice tires back on the car for the rest of practice. The guys once again worked extremely hard, and after a few minor changes, we had once again found a little more speed. At the conclusion of practice, I was extremely happy with two things: the first being that we were the fastest car and the second being how well Ryan and I worked together. This was our first raceday together as Crew Chief and Driver and we had open lines of communication; each feeling as though we understood each other and each contributing to the speed we found in practice.

When we rolled out for qualifying, I knew that we had a great racecar. I spent my warm up lap weaving the car back and forth to warm up the tires and when the green flag dropped, I drove it into turn one hard. Unfortunately, the tires were not completely up to temperature yet, so I "slid the nose" (understeer) just a little bit as I turned into Turn 1. Going into turn three, I drove in just as hard, knowing that I needed to use the first lap to get the tires up to temperature so that the second lap could contend for the pole. I did just that and the car drove very well on the second lap. Our lap of a 13.75 was good, but not quite enough to put us on the pole. We missed it by 0.02 and ended up third.

At All-American Speedway, the top four qualifiers are inverted and placed in a Trophy Dash. This meant that I would start out the outside pole. I like to treat the trophy Dashes as an extra round of practice, rather than a race, so we made another chassis change, knowing that we could always change back for the race. When the green flag dropped, fourth place qualifier Jason Romero, who started on the pole, and I ran side-by-side into turn one. We ended up running the entire Trophy Dash wheel-to-wheel, never touching. I led half of the laps at the start/finish line and Jason led the other half. Unfortunately for us, Jason led the one that counts, the last one, by a nose and won the dash. Congratulations to Jason and his crew!

I decided that I liked the changes we made for the trophy dash, as I was able to stay side-by-side with Romero even though I was on the outside, and I wanted to keep them for the race. The crew set tire pressure for the final time and filled the car with fuel. I couldn't wait for the next 50 laps!

Starting in fourth because All American Speedway inverts the top 6 qualifiers for the main event, I played the conservative card for the first part of the race. By the time everything settled and the caution flag flew for the first time, I was in the fifth position. Overall, I was very happy with the way the car was driving. All-American Speedway is using a unique restart format in 2008: the leader gets to start by himself and the rest of the field lines up double-file behind him. This meant that I would again be forced to start on the outside. When the green flag flew, I, along with Ryan, who was spotting for me, worked hard to get down to the bottom. We were able to get down there without losing the fifth position. I passed two cars, working my way up to third, before the yellow flag flew again. At this point, the new restart procedure was really starting to bother me, as I once again had to start on the outside.

When the green flag flew, I began a side-by-side battle with the 56 car. This was an extremely difficult position for me, as there were still 35 laps remaining in the race and I wanted to remain conservative, yet I couldn't risk getting caught on the outside and falling back a few positions. The 56 gave me much less racing room than I would have given him, pinching me between his car and the wall a number of times, which definitely did not bode well with me. Ryan made my frustrations clear to the 56's spotter, who relayed the message to his driver and said that he would give me racing room when the green flag flew again. Going back to green, this was clearly not the case, as the 56 body-slammed me hard in the center of turns 3 and 4 on lap 12, knocking me back to fourth position, behind the 27 of John Moore. I was able to get past the 27 car within 2 laps to take the third position back. I once again had to work my way around the 56 car, but this time I didn't have to do it from the outside. I am not one to wreck anyone else, but I'm not about to be bounced around by anybody on any racetrack. I got right behind the 56 and gave him an ever-so-slight "nudge", helping him up the track just enough for me to stick my nose underneath him. We were side-by-side again, this time with me on the inside. I knew that I was faster than him and cleared him as fast as I could, setting my slights on the leader, the 50 car of Gary Glenn. I was running down Glenn by about a tenth of a second per lap when the caution flew again at the halfway mark.

This time, I was finally able to restart form the inside. The green flag flew and, without actually touching him, I pressure Glenn hard going into turn one. Glenn went in a little two deep, forcing him to drift up the track and allowing me to get inside of him. My car was great in the short run, and Glenn and I ran side by side for about 4 laps with me gaining little-by-little; I led laps 28 and 29 at the start/finish line. By the time the fifth lap of the run, lap 30 overall, rolled around, Glenn's car came in and mine started to fade, allowing Glenn, who was still outside of me, to start making up ground again. Eventually, he cleared me and I was back to second. We ran the next 12 laps nose to tail. I knew that I had to cool my tires a bit by running at 90% in order to make one final run at him for the win. 8 laps to go came and the caution flew for the final time. I was once again lined up on the inside and pressured Glenn just as hard when the green flag dropped. I was able to get him to drive into turn one just a little too deep, enough for me to get inside of him. With 7 laps to go, we were side-by-side at the start/finish line. I used what I had learned about his car and mine from our last side-by-side run to clear him by the time we reached 5 laps to go. The lead was all ours.

Having Ruth's Chris Steakhouse as a sponsor, the tail of our car said "Follow the Sizzle…" With four laps to go, the entire field was following the sizzle. We led the final few laps and took the checkered flag! It was definitely one of the most thrilling races or my career. I'm thrilled to win the first race of 2008 for the Drive for Diversity program, and to win for Toyota, BMR, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, Willy's Carbs, Penske Shocks, Aim Data Acquisition, Quick Time, Simpson, and all of our supporters. I owe a huge thanks to everyone who has worked on our racecar and who has helped us make it faster, especially Bill McAnally, Ryan, Travis, Herman, Alex, BMR Camping World Crew Chief Duane, BMR Shop Foreman "Cheesecake" Chris, every one at the BMR shop, Jeff Schrader from the Racecar Factory, my Dad, Wally Brown, Kenny Francis, Ronnie Crooks, Scott Hewitt, Nick Hughes, and Willy Krupp,.