Hi, everyone,

Well, I am multi-tasking again as I sit on my long flight from Newark, N.J., back to San Diego. I left the track late Sunday and got a room at the airport and was up early Monday morning to catch my flight at the Newark Airport.

I haven’t been home since I left for the Topeka race a few weeks ago. It is strange to be sitting on this plane watching the little TV located in the seat in front of me and putting it on ESPN and seeing myself on the TV doing color commentary in the ESPN booth on Sunday. The lady next to me thought it was pretty funny.

Well, Shelley was with me for most of the trip before heading back after the Chicago race and I headed East for a few NAPA appearances and the race in Englishtown. I want to thank all the great NAPA people I met on Wednesday and Thursday nights. I can brag that I have the absolute best people who are with NAPA supporting our team. Everyone is so positive and I have become great friends with a lot of them as well.

If you remember back a few blogs, I talked about how we were gonna bring out a new chassis between the Topeka race and the Chicago race. Well, Ace had a change of heart and we kept running the same car. We opted instead to bring the new chassis out for the Norwalk race. Most of the reason was that we have a weekend off after the back-to-back-to-back races and it made more sense for the NAPA team to take its time and get the new car ready. But, also, and if you know Ace you will understand, he has a plan for everything and is about two steps ahead of you at all times. The chassis that we run are usually good a certain amount of runs and then the “pipe” loses its memory for a lack of a more technical term, and we have been past that number for a few races. We were close to that number before Topeka and we still came out of there with a win.

The NAPA guys are headed back to the shop to get the brand-new car ready and, on top of that, Norm and the fab guys at DSR are going to front-half our current car and then the NAPA team is going to put the car back together and put an engine in it and it will be absolutely race-ready. So much, in fact, that if something happens in between runs we will be able to open the back door of the NAPA trailer, pull it out and be able to run it. Not too many teams have a spare car that is as race-ready as that. And with the Countdown coming soon, we will be as ready as we have ever been.

We struggled a little in qualifying last weekend and subsequently we had to face Tim Wilkerson in the opening round and we lost a very close race. I was joking with Shelley because every race that she and the kids came to this season we won. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. So, when she came on the road with me I joked that we were gonna find out if it was she or the kids. Well, we got to Topeka and won again. She was feeling pretty confident at that point, that is until we got to Chicago .

This time of the year is my favorite, for sure. The kids are out of school and we fly to Ohio the week of the Norwalk race and we spend the week at Cedar Point before we head to the track on Friday. Then after the race we spend the next eight days, including the 4th of July, in Breckenridge, Colorado, before the Denver race. It is my favorite time of the year because I get to spend time with the kids at the track AND away from the track.

I get a weekend at home to spend with family. We are gonna go to Las Vegas and stay at my brother’s house and then we are getting together with Shelley’s brother Mark for his birthday party on Saturday night in Vegas. They are saying that it is supposed to be 105 degrees this weekend, so the pool will be used for sure. Can’t wait.

The pilot just came on and said we are landing in San Diego soon. I have been typing this blog on my Blackberry and my fingers are sore anyway….

Talk to you next week.

RC

Hi, everyone,

The NAPA guys just left the hotel here in Topeka and are headed back to our shop in Indiana. Even though we race in Chicago in four days, they are headed back to DSR headquarters to have Norm and the guys in the shop front-half our chassis before this weekend’s race. That tells you the determination of our NAPA team.

We just won our fourth race of the season and they aren’t afraid to try anything. The truth is that we just have a considerable amount of runs on our car and, even though we do have a new car as a spare up in the trailer, Ace believes it is time to put some fresh tubing on our primary car at this time. And, the way the weather forecast looks as of now, it will be pretty good conditions for the cars to really fly.

Another win and the team is hungry for more. It was very, very tough conditions here in Kansas all weekend. We actually had track temperatures of over 135 degrees for most of the weekend, which made our run of 4.26 in the final round even more impressive. All of the teams were struggling with the conditions and it made it really difficult to try and get these 9,000 horsepower Nitro cars to keep from pulling our big ol’ Goodyear tires loose. We qualified pretty good at No. 7 and had to beat two of our teammates and two of the Force cars to win the race - pretty tough company to beat on race day.

We are in the beginning of a sweep of seven races in nine weeks and, to add to that, I am headed to race in Tony Stewart’s “Prelude to the Dream” on Wednesday that will air live by PPV that night. As I have said in my previous blogs, it is a great charity, and an even better race to watch, so make sure you tune in and look for the dirt late model that looks just like our NAPA Funny Car. The car owner Chuck Sanning has a great operation and I am pretty pumped about trying to make you all proud to fly the NAPA colors in something a little different.

I want to say how really cool it was for you guys to let us run the Adaptive One special body again this last weekend. We really were bummed that we didn’t win in Bristol when we thought it was gonna be the only time we were going to run the special body, but a phone call mid-week brought the great news that we could run the Adaptive One car again in Topeka and we didn’t let it slip out of our hands this time.

We got a lot of great coverage for the Adaptive One products, and ESPN even had me do a tech piece for the show on the Adaptive One technology, so a home run for all of us. Thanks again!

Well, I am gonna hop in the shower and we are heading to the airport in KC and fly to Indy for a couple of days.

Talk to you soon.

RC

Hey, everyone,

I am on the go again and it is much earlier in the morning than I want it to be. It is 5 a.m. and I am at the airport in Indianapolis on my way home. First off, I am glad to see Delta on my ticket and no they aren’t one of my sponsors. But I have to always let out a groan when I see US Airways on my itinerary. I have never had so many flights just plain “cancelled” on me as I have with them, and when Ace and Ronnie tried to get home from the test last night, their flight was cancelled too.

We had stayed and tested in Bristol on Monday after the race. If you watched the race on ESPN2, you saw what kind of day it was for the Nitro teams. I don’t think I have seen a stranger first round in years. Our NAPA car was running great in the first round and then it broke a lifter, and on Sunday we drivers are paid to get the car to the finish line first, no matter what. Well, it got a little ugly after that and then it caught on fire. That is when the irony started. We were running our special NAPA Adaptive One Brakes car and after running a 4.23 in the second run I was able to get the NAPA car to a stop on fire with just my brakes and no parachutes… Thank you Adaptive One brake pads!

We had a great car once again in Bristol. It was a pretty tricky weekend with huge temperature swings from day to day. Once again we qualified very well in the No. 5 position, a tribute to the NAPA crew guys giving Ace and Ronnie a very well-prepared race car to tune.

We were able to actually test a few things during qualifying, which is a huge accomplishment in itself, and one of the things we tested worked so well that it’s staying on the car for a while, so it paid off.

I flew to Indy yesterday for a charity bowling event for the Riley Hospital for Children. It is something that Don has really taken under his wing and worked very hard to help raise money and the local NAPA people really got involved for this event. Thanks for all your hard work, Bob!. I suck at bowling, but I got to bowl with some pretty cool people, one of whom had his daughter Sophia’s life saved by the people at Riley. It was touching to talk with you guys, I am just sorry that my low bowling score brought the average down (grin). I did bowl a 138, which I think is a new personal best for me. I may have to break down and take a lesson or two, ‘cause I hate losing and we kinda have a ritual of bowling during the U.S. Nationals with Shelley and a group of friends at night when qualifying ends.

After a few hours of sleep last night I am flying home this morning. It will be nice to be home for a couple of days and spend some time with the kids. We always sit down and watch the latest American Idol on the DVR together as a family. I fly to Bozeman, Montana, on Friday for an appearance at a NAPA store there on Saturday. The store owner is pretty involved in the local dirt track there, so I may go hang out there with them on Friday night when I land.

We are having a UFC party at the house for the PPV on Saturday night. I am flying back from Montana right after my appearance and I land back in San Diego just in time to hopefully catch the last few fights. Then, of course, Sunday is one of the best days to stay home, bbq and watch racing. First, the Indy 500 and then of course we will watch Michael win on Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600. Ahhhh…the perfect day.

We are headed to Topeka, Kansas, for our next race. Things are gonna heat up pretty good here soon, Then Shelley and I fly from there to Indy after the race where we will go to Eldora, Ohio, to race in Tony Stewart’s “Prelude to the dream” dirt race, and this year the talent of drivers is amazing: Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, just to name a few. It will be on Wednesday night, June 3, at 6 p.m. ET on PPV and I think it is only $39. And this year we are racing to raise money for our military and our fallen soldiers, so tune in and check it out. I am driving a car owned by Chuck Sanning and it will be painted up to look just like our NAPA Funny Car. The next morning we will head straight to Chicago to race our next NHRA event there, and then we are racing again the following weekend in Englishtown, New Jersey. So, like I said before, three NHRA races in a row and hopefully the NAPA team will have an even larger lead in the Full Throttle points standings.

I also wanted to tell everyone that Mary Mathis is once again planning the “Cruisin with Capps” deal that will be a week-long cruise from San Diego down through parts of Mexico in the beginning of December. If you are interested, you can email Mary at: Mary@suntvl.com

Well, time to board my flight. Talk to you soon.

RC

Hi, all

Well, I am sitting in the airport in Green Bay, Wis. It is waaaay too early for me to be up, let alone sitting in an airport. I flew in last night for a NAPA appearance and right when I landed, John and Jeremy took me to Lambeau Field where they obviously have good connections, because we got a tour of the stadium and actually got to go down on the field itself. Pretty cool place. Thanks again, guys!

I am on my way home, hoping the kids will still remember what I look like and let me in the house. I am gonna be home for a day and then I head up to Santa Maria, Calif., to race in the dirt Late Model race on Saturday night. Have an autograph session planned with some of the local NAPA stores at the track sometime during the evening, and it should be a fun night.

I have been trying to hold it in, but I can’t any more. I have to let the cat out of the bag: We are running a special paint scheme in Bristol with NAPA’s Adaptive One Brakes on the car. Well, not just ON our car but the car will have a completely different look to it, and I think you all will like it.

I will get to see Caden’s last baseball game of the year before I leave for Bristol next week. The people at Champion System, who make the uniforms our NAPA team wears and actually that all of the DSR teams wear, made one for Caden that is a replica of the one that I wear, and he can’t wait for Norwalk to sport it.

Taylor just called to tell me that she got a 91 on her latest math test. I think that made me more proud than anything I have heard in a while. It’s those phone calls that I have grown to cherish. She is becoming a young woman and it is scaring the daylights out of me, so the trips that we have planned with family this summer mean so much more now that the kids are growing so fast. I know that she can’t wait for Norwalk either, ‘cause she will get to ride in the tow vehicle with me and the crew and seeing her at the finish line when my run is over is going to be pretty cool, I must say.

One of her favorite classes right now is her TV and broadcasting class. She knows that Ashley Force studied that as well and she is looking forward to picking Ashley’s brain at her next race to get any tips she can for school.

I think we are gonna skip the lake trip that we usually make after the Sonoma race. We are probably gonna spend our time in San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach for the two-week break hanging out with family and friends this year.

Well, reflecting on last weekend in St. Louis is bittersweet. We qualified No. 1 and went to another final before losing a close race to Del Worsham. I have said it before - it just makes me smile when I know that Ace, Ronnie and our NAPA team set a goal before a race, and to watch it materialize throughout the weekend is awesome.

We wanted to try and test a couple of things during qualifying, but then the rain came on Friday and we were left with only two runs of qualifying on Saturday. The good part was that there were only 16 Funny Cars entered, so Ace did a little of both. We made our first run with his normal approach, and that was a 4.11, which put us on the pole after that session. Then he wanted to try something that he and Tommy “Johnny” DeLago had been discussing, and that was another 4.11, which kept us as No. 1 qualifier. Race day came and Ace and the NAPA team were consistent all day (4.16, 4.13, 4.13, 4.12) and my lights were all in the .80s, and that combination is gonna win a lot of races.

Bristol is another Bruton Smith track, as you know, and that is always nice to see on the schedule. They treat us first class there and having past success there is nice, but it doesn’t guarantee results. We are leading the Full Throttle points for a reason and that consistency, along with the performance that our team has had, will surely give us the opportunity for a chance to win again soon, hopefully.

I hope all of you have a great Mother’s Day weekend and we will talk to you next week.

RC

Hi, Everyone

I am sitting in my coach in the infield of the St. Louis track watching the dark clouds get darker and they are getting closer. Imagine that, we are in town to race and they are calling for a chance of rain….I should have been a farmer .

I know last week I told you that I was going to be racing in a NASCAR Camping World race in a NASCAR Late Model. Well, it really turned out to be a great event, especially since it was so last minute. I drove the No. 51 “Race for Autism” car for Carlos Vieira whose team is raising money for the Cure for Autism. He has a website ( www.raceforautism.net ) that was on the car I drove. Their goal is to raise $51,000, hence the No. 51 on the car. We qualified ninth and finished sixth in the race, and we actually made a pit stop to tighten the car up, went to the back of the field and fought our way back up to sixth, so it was a great night.

Tony Stewart just announced the lineup for this year’s “Prelude to the dream” PPV dirt race ( http://www.hbo.com/events/prelude/ ) at Tony’s Eldora track and I was invited back. I have been very proud to have been part of it since its inception I think it was four years ago. The field of drivers gets more and more stout. I usually only get to race on the dirt once a year in the Late Models at that race, so this year I figured that I should get at least some laps in prior to the race before showing up cold turkey at the “Prelude.” So I am going back to where I grew up on the Central Coast of California next weekend and I am going to race at the Santa Maria Speedway ( http://www.racesantamariaspeedway.com/ ) in a Western Late Models race next Saturday night (May 9th). It is a track where I grew up sitting in the grandstands watching some of the best dirt racers in the country race and I can’t tell you how exciting it is to actually be racing on that very same track with some of the best Late Model racers in the country and with my hometown of San Luis Obispo only 20 miles away. I will get to see a lot of friends and family as well.

Racing these non-Drag Racing races is always cool for me because I get to interact with the NAPA store owners in these towns that don’t have a big NHRA race nearby, like in Madera last weekend. I went by a NAPA store that had a fan-fest type event prior to the race and the fan turnout sure reminded me how much they love our NAPA Funny Car, so I am looking forward to racing up in Santa Maria!

Well, as I just looked out my window, it has started sprinkling again, darn it. This race in St. Louis has always been a place we look forward to. We have won here three times, and we were the winners of the inaugural race here in 1997 as well. So, suffice it to say, the NAPA team is glad to see it come up on the schedule every year.

I was hoping to share the surprise that we have in store for you guys in Bristol in a few weeks, but someone put the “brakes” on me making the announcement, so you will have to wait till the next blog I suppose.

I have a radio show to do in our pit area in a few minutes, need to grab my raincoat and head that way. Talk to you next week.

RC

Hi, everyone

On my way to the airport here in Atlanta. It is the Wednesday after our race last weekend in Atlanta and I have just left NAPA headquarters where Michael Waltrip and I spent the afternoon saying thanks to all the employees at our great sponsor.

I always look forward to getting together with Michael at our NAPA events. He reminds me of John Force in a certain way. And he always reminds me of how lucky we are to be driving for such a great sponsor, but also just how lucky we are to be doing what we get to do for a living. We are all hoping that he gets a win in Talladega this weekend; his team always runs good there.

This year has already been a blur so far. We have won three races and we are leading the points, but I have been busy every weekend that we have had off from our racing schedule, and that is a good thing in this day and age.

Speaking of last weekend, another great job by our NAPA team. We qualified No. 3 and went to the quarterfinals before losing a close race. Our teammate Jack Beckman ended up winning and it is always great to have a DSR car in the winner’s circle.

We have a weekend off before we head to St. Louis and race at the track in Madison, Ill., which is just across the river from St. Louis. I am going to be up in Madera, Calif., racing a NASCAR Late Model in a Camping World Series race this Saturday night and I will be driving a car that has “Race for Autism” on it, and it will be an honor to try and help raise awareness and money for the cause. I will also be appearing at a NAPA store in Fresno on Friday as well with the car on display before heading to the track to practice on Friday afternoon.

I will let you in on a little secret. We will be making a pretty cool announcement soon regarding the NAPA team and our upcoming race in Bristol. I am pretty pumped about it, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

Talk to you soon.

RC

Hi, Everyone

Oh boy…I’m a little slow this morning . As you know, the NAPA AUTO PARTS team won its third race of the season on Sunday in Las Vegas and, actually, the third race out of five races so far this year.

It was a grueling weekend, to say the least. The weather played some tricks with the crew chiefs and, while we qualified sixth, “Ace” wasn’t real happy with how the NAPA car was performing going into race day and, to be honest, we have been trying some new things with the car setup at the last couple of races, so I knew when I got to the NAPA pit area on Sunday morning it was gonna be a great day.

Las Vegas is always a pretty demanding weekend on everyone because, well, it is Las Vegas (lol). I got into town early to meet up with some friends at Kerry Simon’s restaurant called Simon’s located at The Palms Place. He has a couple of restaurants in Vegas. I finally got him out to the track on Friday to witness his first drag race in person. If you get the chance, you have got to check his place out - great food and better atmosphere.

ESPN had a chance to show the race live, which is a challenge to do, and in order to do so, they told the teams that the turnaround between runs on Sunday was going to be even shorter than normal. Our NAPA team rose to the occasion and we were always one of the first cars back up in the staging lanes each time. The high desert conditions are pretty trying physically on your body and I could see all of the crew guys suffering a little bit and that is what makes me so dang proud of our NAPA crew. You always hear me praise Ace for the job he does in giving me a great car to drive, but the one constant is that the NAPA team gives him a race car error-free time and time again. They are truly one of the main reasons for our success, trust me.

The race in Las Vegas is always special because my family, and I mean ALL of my family, loves to come to the race as well as a lot of friends, and this last weekend was no exception. Our very close friends Phil and Neise Palmer from Palmer Electric opened their suite up to my close friends and family. If you were at the race and in the large pit-side grandstands, all you had to do was turn around and look up and see and hear all the screaming going on up there when our NAPA car came by. Well, after the race they invited us to their house in South Las Vegas for a victory party, and their house is like a resort in their backyard. It’s an incredible place, and they had enough food brought in to feed 50 people as well. They had a band playing, even Del and Connie Worsham came by, as well as Chad Head from AJ’s team, and Kalitta’s guys Nicky, Jim O, John O, Rick, among other people. It really meant a lot that they did and it reminds you about the kind of people we have in our wonderful sport when the guys we compete against are as cool as they are off the track.

We are hanging here in town and staying at my brother’s house since the kids are off for Easter break this week. We are gonna relax, spend some quiet family time and then head back home for Easter before the kids are back in school next week. We are headed to Atlanta in two weeks. It is headquarters for NAPA as well as our series sponsor Full Throttle, so we are looking forward to showing off in front of our sponsors there.

Enjoy your Easter weekend and I will talk to you next week!

RC

Hi, everyone,

It has been a busy week since we left Houston just a few days ago. We are in Las Vegas for what is usually a very busy week for everyone with these races being on back-to-back weekends. This race is always good for lots of activities going on in town prior to the race: autograph sessions at hotel-casinos, press conferences, and a lot of radio station call-ins as well, but it’s always nice to finally get to the track to get ready for our qualifying runs today.

We had a small hiccup in Houston and lost first round, and we really kind of fought the setup a little all weekend. In fact, we were No. 2 qualifier after Friday, and we wanted to test the track on Saturday’s runs, which didn’t hold the NAPA car and pulled the tires loose and we ended up not having lane choice and we lost to the eventual winner of the race.

I did a lot of bragging previously about the Houston track owners pouring a new concrete surface after last year’s race, which was, well, an embarrassment for the fans last year. So, we were promised a new track surface, which apparently never happened. They reground the track instead and it proved to be still pretty difficult for the crew chiefs all weekend, which leads me into today.

We are at The Strip in Vegas where they do whatever it takes to make the best possible racing for both the drivers and crew chiefs. Listen, you can build the biggest and best-looking grandstands, nicest parking lot, and trickest looking tower and suites, but if you don’t provide the fans with good – no, make that great – side-by-side racing, they aren’t going to come back, and I wouldn’t blame them.

Our NAPA team is still leading the Full Throttle points standings and we are planning on getting back to the form we had in Pomona and Phoenix and this race in Vegas is where we can do it, especially when my crew chief has the nickname of “the Ace” — grin.

I have to run. Gonna start the car for our first run today. Talk to you soon.

RC

Hi, everyone,

I am at the airport in San Diego waiting to board my plane to Louisville for the Mid American Truck Show. I am signing in the NAPA booth Thursday at the show, I was invited to it last year for the first time and was astounded at the size of the event. Wow.

I am then flying into Bristol for a special race I was invited to. I am still waiting for all the details, but what I do know is that it is called the “Scotts Saturday Night Special” and it’s going to air LIVE on ESPN2 on Saturday after the Nationwide race. It is going to have celebrities in the first segment followed by their teammates in the second segment which will have such NASCAR legends as Rusty Wallace, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson to name just a few, and we will all be driving NASCAR Late Models around the famous 1/2 mile track. It is for charity, and I’ll driving for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

But, let me tell you, when the green flag drops there will be plenty of excitement for sure, so make sure you tune into ESPN2 on Saturday night (EST) and cheer us on.

Well, we had a car that was very capable of winning our third race of the year but we lost a very close race in our opening round. The NAPA team gave me a great car and I wasn’t on my game as a driver as much as my competitor was and it cost us the win. We surely had a big red target on our back and everyone was trying to make sure we didn’t win three in a row.

The upside of the loss on Sunday is that we have a car capable of winning and I have a good feeling that the NAPA team will grace the winner’s circle a few more times in 2009.

We are off to Houston the following weekend. We won back-to-back race there a few years ago, so we are pretty pumped to be headed there again.

Have to run. Talk to you in a few days!

RC

Hi, everyone

It has been a good week here in Florida preparing for the Gatornationals in Gainesville. We started the week off by going down to West Palm Beach and testing all day on Monday. As most of you know, NHRA is allowing teams to only test four times during the season, so you need to use them sparingly, and you’d better make it worthwhile, for sure. Ace and the guys had some things that we wanted to try before the season gets cooking here and we don’t have a lot of days to test between races. We had already tested at PBIR (Palm Beach International Raceway) in January and once again they did everything possible to make sure our visit was productive and the track was prepared perfectly, just as it was in January.

A few of us from the team spent Wednesday going fishing out of West Palm Beach on a 62-ft. boat. The fish weren’t very active, but it was a fun day nonetheless. Everyone needed a good relaxing day on the ocean, and Captain Ed and his friends made sure we had a great time out at sea.

I just got to Gainesville a little while ago. The amount of press we have gotten for opening the season with two wins is great for everyone on the team, and especially good for NAPA AUTO PARTS and all the great people associated with NAPA. Our team was lucky enough to win this race in back-to-back years, and it looks like the weather will have sunny skies looking down on our race this weekend. That could make it a tricky race track surface for everyone.

One note I wanted to pass on is that our race will be on ESPN on Sunday afternoon instead of ESPN2 this weekend, so make sure you tune in.

Talk to you next week!

RC