Sunny..........and Cloudy Florida

I have only been to Florida once in my life. As a youngster, the family took a vacation to Disney World, met the mouse, snapped some pics and enjoyed Space Mountain. The one thing I always remembered was the sunny, warm weather that was ever apparent in our week long excursion. Coming back to Florida 11 years later, I am seriously wondering where all that sunshine went. For the most part, we have had to contend with rainy conditions during our time down here in Florida. One bright spot was yesterday when the sun came out and we enjoyed some of the best weather I have ever seen.

We kicked off the racing portion of the 40th Annual DIRTcar Nationals by University of Northwestern Ohio on Tuesday. The UMP modifieds took center stage as the 410 sprints were allowed to take some practice laps around the 1/2 mile oval. The night went amazingly and the track was a bit choppy but still produced some great side by side racing. Austin Dillon, a rising NASCAR star, took the checkers and I was lucky enough to get the chance to handle the post race festivities on the UNOH stage. Austin is a great kid and certainly has a huge future ahead of him.



Another thing I discovered was a delicious entree called "Steak on Stick." I have to thank Steve the cook for the hook up.

We kicked Wednesday by heading down to a local Shell station to film a few web commercials with Kenny Wallace. The Herminator was in rare form so check out the commercials below.





Wednesday was another night of non stop, extreme racing action as Sammy Swindell showed he can still outrun any field and NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer won the UMP feature. Interviewing a fellow Kansan on the UNOH Victory Stage was a really cool experience.

Getting to help announce the DIRTcar Nationals has been a dream for me and its where my passion truly is. Getting out there and interacting with the crowd is a great deal of fun and I can't wait for the nights to follow. Coming up tonight is the final night of racing for the O'Reilly Auto Parts All Star Circuit of Champions and another UMP Modified feature. Starting tomorrow, the World of Outlaws kick off their season long march to the World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. It's going to be an exciting season and be sure to check out worldofoutlaws.com for all the details and info.