We regrouped after Atlanta, went with last years car along with some other mechanical changes & kinda got back to where we had that consistent race car that we’ve been looking for all season!

Just look at our runs, starting with Saturday - 4.27 & 4.14 & Sunday - 4.21, 4.16, & another 4.16 on that semi-final race where we lost a very close (less than 6′) one to Capps.

All & all, we left St. Louis feeling like we have a race car that can not only get us back to winning races, but back into the top 10 & further!

Look for another blog by the end of the week where I’ll answer some more of the questions you’ve sent in & as always, “Keep the wheels turning”.

CP

Friday was a complete rain out & Saturday we qualified 4th with a strong 4.14 @ 297MPH!

Race Day:

1st Round Win!!!

A 4.21 gets the win vs. Jim Head!  That’s it for now.  Our Advance Auto Parts / Toyota will go up against Bob Tasca in Elimination Round 2.  I’ll give more updates throughout the day as I can, so stay tuned….

CP

As I’ve said before, we’re still not where we want to be with our cars performance or consistency but that’s what makes winning races & championships so special.  It’s not easy but the good news is, we are still the defending F/C Champs! 

Rahn & I have talked about our game plan moving forward & we’ll look at everything, including using last years car. 

All that said, there’s no team or crew chief that I’d rather have on our side than the team we have, headed up by Rahn Tobler & Shawn Dill.

We’ll keep digging till we get back to the winners circle.  Up next, St. Louis in two weeks….until then “Good Night Now”!

CP

Rahn and the whole Advance Auto Parts F/C team are being patient and staying positive till we get back to our consistency. 

We’ll race Matt Hagan in the 1st round tomorrow. The weatherman says rain, but we’ll see.

Thank you all for logging on & we’ll give updates throughout the day tomorrow.

CP

On the 1st run today, the car launched hard but spun the tires just before half track.  Our 2nd run was much better, a 4.15 @ 303 MPH which places us in 7th for now.

It’s great to finally get a solid run in on Friday.  It’s not #1 but it was a nice smooth run without any tire shake, which is what we’ve been chasing. 

We’ll now work on being steady & constant Saturday with 2 qualifying runs down & 2 to go.

CP

Our runs today are scheduled for 4pm & 6:30pm but before we get to that, I wanted to answer some of the questions you have submitted.

Question from Sonia - Do you and Tony have any plans on expanding your team to include another car/driver?

If it benefits our team & the right partnership & people are available, I think we’d look at it.

Question from Deon - Do you agree that a winning attitude helps true leaders get to the top of their profession as you have done in the sport of Drag Racing?

A winning attitude helps in every day life, not just racing.  I do think having a positive attitude is good for all professions whether you’re a teacher, factory worker, or athlete.  Sometimes you have to dig deep to find it but there’s a positive in just about everything.

Question from Timothy - What is the size of your cars supercharger & is it true that it takes 1,000 hp to spin it?

The supercharger is a 1471 and yes as crazy as it sounds, with the clearances so tight, it takes that kind of power to spin it, but the advantage is the air being forced into the intake to help burn the nitro fuel gives us that extra supercharged energy.

Question from Mary Beth - Will you and Tony be in “Night Under Fire” at Norwalk, OH this year or will the new exhibition/test rules restrict you from participating?

We’ll be there.  Running the “Night Under Fire” is one of the highlights of our year.  The firework display & jet cars / trucks are pretty amazing.

Question from Arturo - How great does it feel that you and your brother Tony are back to back champions?

It feels awesome!!!  It’s a feeling that’ll last a lifetime & we’ll charish it for years to come.  I would’ve been thrilled with either of us winning one Championship & together we’ve won 4!  It’s very exciting & we’re so proud of the opportunities we’ve been given, our hard work has definitely paid off.

We’re heading out for qualifying session one now…more updates after the run.

CP

The good is we went to the semi-finals.  The not so good is we still haven’t found our rhythm yet, the consistency that carried us to the Championship last season. 

The #1 thing we do have going for us is our team’s positive attitude!  We have a great group of people starting with team leader & Crew Chief Rahn Tobler.  He keeps everyone, including myself positive at all times through thick & thin.  This slow start will pass and when it does, we’ll look back & see how important it is to stay positive, keep smiling, & plugging away until we get it right.  That’s what a Championship team does!

We did move up a couple spots in the points to 11th, so not to bad after five races.  There’s still a lot of racing to go & we’re all looking forward to it!  Right now the team is making the long trip back to our headquarters in Brownsburg, IN, then our next stop on the tour is Atlanta.

For all the Advance Auto Parts team members all across the country to our drag racing team, thank you for visiting this site and allowing me to share some of my insights about our team & the race events.

Thanks again & Keep the wheels turning.

CP

We ran a solid 4.14 @ 303MPH in round 1 against Tasca which put us up against Tony in round 2, where we smoked the tires at about 250′.  Tony crossed the center line before the finish, which disqualified his team & sent us on to the semi-finals where we’ll face Matt Hagan. 

More after next round…

CP

1st session: we had a good, solid run, a 4.16 @ 301 MPH which in the end, landed us in the #8 spot. 

Today we’re up against Bob Tasca, the #9 qualifier.  Our team is definitely getting back in the groove & ready to go rounds today, should be a lot of exciting racing!

Don’t forget you can listen live on NHRA.com.

More after round one….

CP

We finished up in the 8th position.  On that last run, Rahn decided to run one of our new surperchargers (blower), to see how it would perform, and let’s just say it’s strong!

That’s it for now from LV…

Good night now!!!

CP