Preparation for Bristol, Bristol, and the Road Ahead
Hello everyone!
I hope the summer months are treating everyone well. It’s been a month since my last blog, but I feel like it was just yesterday that I wrote last. Wow! The time sure has flown by over the last month, and so many great things have happened.
First, I would like to extend best wishes from the entire Charlie Daniels Racing team to the Kowalsky family in Lynchburg, Va. Don Kowalsky is our late model engine builder and his son along with several others were severely injured in a head on collision. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
Now, it’s time to catch up on everything. Since our last races (mine was May 17th at Bristol, Tiffany’s was May 10th at South Boston), our team worked feverishly to prepare our cars for the July 5th UARA Stars event at the historic Bristol Motor Speedway. Also during that time, I began working with Eddie D’Hondt Motorsports, a rising ARCA Remax Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series team, Devyn attended her first NASCAR Sprint Cup series race June 8th at Pocono with Chip Ganassi Racing, and our team continued to plan our events for the remainder of the 2008 racing season and even started looking towards the ’09 season. Our team continues to build upon positive momentum that we have developed thanks to the great people we have been able to work with and our on-track performances.
Phil and Mary Ann Campbell from Southern National Raceway Park at the track. Also, thank you to the extra people who helped with the repairs on Tiffany’s racecar, Richard Boswell and “Watermelon” Cox. We would also like to thank our sponsors, Clean Sweep Maintenance Co., Safety Kleen, B&Q Detailing, Graphic Solutions of VA, Coca Cola, Hostess Snack Cakes, and Duragloss Car Care Products. One special thank you that our team would like to extend goes to the anonymous person who generously helped cover the fuel cost for our race cars at the Bristol race. Thank you all for your support.
Several other items; I would like to recognize my grandmother, Shirley Daniels, who has twice been to Honduras to help build libraries for children in honor of my cousin, Tonya Rose Dams, who we lost in November of 2006. Grandma, thank you for your generosity to those without the liberties and freedoms that we daily take for granted.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with one of our marketing representatives, Mack McKee, as he continues to fight off symptoms of diabetes.
I would also like to wish our chief mechanic, Jim Brown, a speedy recovery after he has shoulder surgery very soon.
Looking ahead, we will be hopefully announcing soon our plans for the remainder of the ’08 racing season. We will have many other events coming soon also, which we will announce as they arrive. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and for supporting the Charlie Daniels Racing team, I hope everyone is enjoying the months of summer! Thanks to the men and women who protect our country every day! I will be talking to you soon.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”
Going into this race at Bristol, our team had a lot of anticipation because of our previous success at the track and our extensive preparation for the event. There was an all-day test session at the speedway on Thursday, July 3rd, and we had two cars to make race ready for the July 5th event. Unfortunately, without warning, the engine in Tiffany’s car failed only a few laps into her first session on the track. This was a big disappointment, but we quickly began to explore our options to get her back on the track. While arrangements were being made
The CDR team going to qualify (Philip Morisi photo)
to find a replacement engine for her car, we tested with my car and made a handful of handling changes throughout the day. Midway through the afternoon session, we were content with the performance of my car, and shifted focus back to our other team car. By that time, the replacement engine had arrived thanks to the Holman’s of nearby Abington, Va. Tiffany and the rest of our crew took charge to change the engine, and after another day of work on Friday, we had the replacement engine running strong.
On race day, we were pleased with the performance of both cars throughout the two practice sessions and were looking forward to the race. Bad luck struck Tiffany’s weekend once more in the final practice when an on track collision caused heavy damage to her car, unfortunately sidelining her from being able to qualify. The team worked very hard once again to put the #04 car in the show, but time constraints would not allow us to do so. True team spirit was shown as Tiffany and our entire crew jumped once again to support the efforts for my car in the 150 lap feature event. We started the race in the 7th position, and fell back several spots early in the running. The car did not come up to speed as quickly as we had planned, forcing us to be patient for the first half of the race. By the halfway mark, our car came to life and we picked up several spots late in the race en route to a 4th place finish. We learned many valuable lessons racing the beginning of the race with a car that was not handling well, and then racing back to the top five by the end of the race. I personally was very proud of everyone who worked so hard for us to have a solid top 5 finish for the second time in two races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Racing with Darrel Wallace, Jr. (Philip Morisi photo)
We couldn’t have asked for a better team to work with at the track and we are truly blessed to have their support. First I would like to thank the Lord for blessing our lives in so many ways, my parents, Charlie and Wanda Daniels, Devyn, Tiffany, Jim Brown, Mike and Philip Morisi, Mack McKee, Cleve and Corey Melton, Russell Curtis, Daniel Rhinehart, Greg Marlowe, Keith Montgomery, Todd and Dee Sitler, Jarrod England, Nikki Hedrick, Zach Kirby, Jason Buckley and the entire staff at Speed 51. We were also fortunate to have the support of
