I just got back from a weekend in Las Vegas at the NASCAR races. It was a blast. I was with John and Courtney Force promoting the upcoming NHRA race April 1-3 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
My favorite part about going to NASCAR races is watching the crew guys work on pit road and in the garages. As a former crew guy, I want to watch and see how they work on the cars and how that is different from what we do on the NHRA side. You can always learn a new trick or two.
We spent a lot of time with Ford drivers and teams like Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, the Wood brothers and Richard Petty. We are all representing Ford and we are all off to a great start. Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500, I won the NHRA Winternationals and Carl Edwards won the Kobalt Tools 400 this past weekend. We all share in the wins at Ford and we all encourage each other. Before the race, John, Courtney and I got into the pre-race huddle with Greg Biffle's team and let me tell you those guys get pumped up. I was ready to go racing after hearing that pep talk.
I was rooting for the all Fords, but I was also torn because Kurt Busch was driving the AAA car. He is also going to be racing with us in Gainesville at the NHRA Gatornationals in a Pro Stock car. We are excited to have a big-time NASCAR driver joining us in the NHRA on the track. We see a fair number of NASCAR guys at the race in Charlotte but it is really cool to see them on the racetrack with us.
John is the best at spreading the gospel of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Every time we talked with someone, John was talking up the race at The Strip; it didn't matter if it was a fan in an autograph line to five-time champ Jimmie Johnson.
In addition to just talking about the race, we had the beginnings of our John Force Racing Road Show on display outside the track. We had videos showing race highlights as well as three of our Ford Mustang Funny Cars on display. We had my Auto Club Mustang, Courtney's BrandSource Mustang and John's Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang on display. On Saturday John's Mustang was inside the Neon Garage in the infield for everyone to see. On Sunday, it was outside with the other two Funny Cars.
At dinner on Saturday night, John decided it would be a good idea for us to give the NASCAR fans a treat and do a surprise autograph session at our trailer on Sunday morning. The fans loved it. We signed for about an hour as people came into the track. That got our blood pumping and then John and I went on the set of RaceDay on Speed and had a great time with Kenny Wallace.
All in all it was a great weekend but I am ready to get behind the wheel on my Mustang.