On my way to Charlotte (updated May 18)

I need to update this blog and apologize to Cody Keller and his Dad Matt. When you continue reading, I got their last name wrong when I wrote this last night, I also thought that he raced mini-sprints, but I found out he races 358 limited sprints in PA. I'm sorry I got all your information wrong, but my heart was in the right place. After talking with Jeannie today, she informed me that Cody was really surprised and they totally cheered him up. Good Luck Cody, and get well soon.

I am writing this blog while I'm sitting at the Camping World in Statesville, NC, it is 8:30pm and I am watching the finale of Survivor (I'm hoping JT wins). The reason I'm at Camping World is my satellite quit working and after trying to troubleshoot why it quit, I think I have it narrowed down to the LMB head on the dish. I'm lucky that the CBS station here in Statesville, NC hasn't gone digital yet, so I am able to watch Survivor.

When I ended my last blog, I was at a hotel in Maryland after having the big fuel leak. My temp fix worked and I made it to Delmar, Delaware Monday evening without any further problems. I need to thank Vince Gutierrez for helping me for 2 hours to wash the motorhome, the trailer and Woody. After the big fuel down, Woody and his trailer were covered in diesel fuel residue, it took a lot of soap and scrubbing to get it all off, thanks for the help Vince. I still have a faint smell of diesel fuel still in the bedroom of the motorhome, I have been spraying fabreeze daily and it is helping a little bit. The smell I have now, is a bad mixture of fabreeze & diesel, I'm pretty sure fabreeze wouldn't want to market it. Hopefully the smell will disapate over time.

Tuesday night was race night in Delaware, the track was a low banked 1/2 mile that went dry slick in hotlaps. The PA Posse brought over 10 cars which made for a very competitive field. The track was really racey when it slicked off, it wasn't very fast, but it would have been really an interesting A-main, but the track owner decided to re-work the track and made it tacky and fast. Which in turn made it for a no passing one groove race and Lasoski did a great job winning the battle to turn one first and was fast all race and didn't make a mistake and won the race.

Wednesday, I left the track in Delaware around 10:00am and headed for Harrisburg, PA for an afternoon appointment at the Cummins service center. The drive through Delaware was really nice, the highways were all pretty smooth and beautiful scenery. I would have never guessed that Delaware had so many farms. Driving across the Bay Bridge over Chesapeak Bay was fun, I wish I didn't have to race to Harrisburg, because I wanted to stop at the Naval Academy and see what type of new breed of Naval Officers was going to be joining the fleet this year. I made it to Cummins in Harrisburg, PA around 2:30pm and they were waiting for me. They replaced the fuel line and fuel filter in less than an hour. I need to thank Chad (the service manager) for making sure it didn't cost me an arm & a leg to get it fixed, he got me out of there for under $160 including parts. I highly recommend this Cummins Power Systems Service Center in Harrisburg, PA. After I left Cummins, it was off to WalMArt in Mechanicsburg and then to the Flying J to fill up with fuel. I made it Williams Grove Speedway around 5:30pm and parked in Woody's normal parking spot. Everybody else was there waiting for me to go out to dinner.

I woke up Thursday morning to rain, which seems to be a re-accuring deal when the WoO is at Williams Grove. Of course it stopped raining around noon and dried up enough to open the pit gate and get all the haulers in the pits and ready to race. All of the teams didn't even unload, expecting it to rain again, and rain it did, once for about 20 minutes with about an hour break before the skies unloaded again and the race was cancelled. It was now time to go over to Brad's campsite and drink some of his Coors Light. Brad and his friends have been camping across from Woody since the new pit gate has been open. I had a good time drinking their beer and eating their lasagna. Thanks.

Friday, I woke up to blue skies and a great atmosphere for racing. The track was ready and man was the PA Posse ready. After a good night of racing with a big crowd on hand, the PA Posse kicked the WoO asses all night. It was great to see Sam Hafertepe Jr as the only WoO driver to make the dash, Sam has had a really crappy season so far, hopefully this will be a sign of a turnaround for the rest of the year. In the one heat where two Outlaws were on the front row, Dollansky and Wolfe took eachother out before they reached the startline in turn 4. I don't know what happened, but a big cheer came from Beerhill and both cars were stopped on the track. Lucas really got his elbows up and drove from the back to get 5th and the final transfer spot. With all the rain, the track never opened up and pretty much stayed one grooveish and fast, which meant not much passing, except for watching Schatz & Rahmer drive up through the field. In the end, the PA Posse kicked our butts. We will see what happens in July.

Yesterday I left the track around 1:00pm and headed south on I-81. I stopped in Salem, VA at the WalMart for the night and walked over to Applebees for dinner and a couple of beers. I left this morning around 11:30am and made it here to Statesville, NC around 4:00pm.

I want to go back to Friday for a moment, one of mine and Woody's biggest supporters Jeannie Butler of ButlerBuilt Seats called me about an hour before the drivers meeting and asked me for a favor. One of her clients Cody Hatton ( I hope I remembered his last name correctly) who is 18yrs old crashed his mini sprint around a month ago and injured his vertabrae, Jeannie cares so much about all her clients, she wanted to cheer him so she asked me to get some of the drivers to autograph a shirt for him. I went over to the drivers T-Shirt trailers, most of them are run by the drivers wives, and told them the story about Cody and all of them were kind enough to donate a shirt for him. All of the drivers Steve & Kraig Kinser, Donny Schatz, Jason Meyers, Craig Dollansky, Joey Saldana, Brian Ellenberger, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Jac Haudenschild, Lucas Wolfe, and Danny Lasoski were all happy to autograph their shirts. I also want to thank the WoO and Penske Shocks for donating shirts. I want to send out a huge thank you to all the drivers and their wives for their kindness. I met Cody's dad in the pits before qualifying and gave him all the shirts, he was overwelmed and thankful for the kindness everyone showed. He thanked all the wives and personnel who work in the T-Shirt trailers and the drivers, and he said "I know this will definitely cheer up Cody and help him out in his recovery". I'm pretty sure the autographed Work 'N Woody T-Shirt will be his favorite. Jeannie, everyone was more than happy to donate shirts because of everything that you do for every driver and your friendships with them. Cody, enjoy the shirts and I hope they did cheer you up and get well soon and I will see you at the track when you come to your next WoO race.

JT just won Survivor, i do believe the best player won this Survivor. Now its off to Charlotte for Friday nights race (which is going to be broadcast LIVE on SPEED starting at 8:00pm est) and then a short 320 mile drive overnight to Virgina Motor Speedway in Saluda, VA (20 miles east of Richmond) for Saturday nights race. This week will be dedicated to prevenative maintenance on the motorhome & Woody (change oil filter, grease U-joints & Suspension).

Again, I want to thank all the fans for supporting me and Work 'N Woody and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. So, until my next blog, stay safe and keep all four wheels on the ground.

Work 'N Woody,
"Just Push'n Off"