Catchfence

Well, hello again. Today we got to go out and really see what our car was going to do in the draft here at Daytona.

The first part of the day was spent doing some interviews and then I strapped into the No. 38 Mahindra Tractors USA Ford for two, one-hour practice sessions. The first one went pretty good, but we were really tight coming off Turns 2 and 4.

The guys on the Front Row Motorsports team made some adjustments and we did pretty good after some work in the garage. I went from 45^th to 31^st to end up 25^th at the end of the second practice.

I’ll tell you, I could really feel how loose the car got when I went up in the high groove. The air felt like it was going all over the car when I got up there, so I tried down low and it seems to handle better in the draft.

The more laps I did in the Cup car, the more comfortable I got racing on the track. Not that I wasn’t comfortable, but I’m racing with the best-of-the-best in the Cup Series for the Daytona 500. And, the last thing I want to do is make a mistake and ruin someone’s car and day.

So, we got out of those two practices okay without doing any damage to our car. Tomorrow is my first Duel 150 to determine my starting spot for the Daytona 500. To say I’m a little excited and anxious would be an understatement.

After the Cup practice ended, I immediately went over to the Nationwide Series garage to jump in our No. 23 Mahindra Tractors USA Chevrolet for the first practice of our season. The car made it through technical inspection okay, so the R3 Motorsports team had it ready to go.

The practice was two hours long and right from the start of it I loved the car. It went off into the turns, stuck to the asphalt and drove like a dream out there. I know the guys did a lot of work on the car getting it ready for Daytona, and it showed right off the bat.

I was leading some single file lines of cars, and then I blended into some and then I tried the high and low sides. It was a little tight a few times, but it seemed to run well and sucked up pretty good in the draft.

For the last run, I got out there and really gave it a good workout. We went from 20-something to seventh on the chart. I can’t tell you the last time I was up in that area on the speed charts. When the practice was finally over, we had the 12^th-fastest time.

I was really proud of the whole R3 team. We have one Nationwide practice in the morning, and then I go Cup racing in the first Duel 150 later in the day. Wish me luck, and I’ll talk to you after tomorrow’s events.

Oh, if you could become a fan of ours on Facebook and then sign up to follow us on Twitter, we’d appreciate it. We’re under R3 Motorsports on FB and R3Motorsports on Twitter.

Okay, that’s it from me – for now.
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