Bad Luck Hurts Both On Racetrack And NCAA Tournament Bracket

Since I last wrote, things have definitely not gone how I wanted them to – and the main reason is we’ve had bad luck.

We were fast in Phoenix. We were fast in Las Vegas. At Phoenix, we got wrapped up in somebody else’s problem – as did about 15 other cars – and then at Vegas, we had an engine issue. It’s rare that ever happens with our Earnhardt Childress Racing motors. And at Bristol, we started off good – we had a good starting spot – but it didn’t really materialize in the race like we thought it would.

You’ll have stuff like that happen in the course of a long season, but you just don’t want to have it all at once in the first part of the season. Unfortunately, we did. So we’ll just have to start digging out of the hole.

I look at the points, but I don’t really look at them from the standpoint of, “Oh, how far behind 10th are we?” Plus, I don’t really understand what I’m looking at right now because of the new points system. At this point in the year, it’s a new experience for all of us. You could look at it and say, “Oh my gosh, we’re so far behind!” But how does that equate to last year’s system? I don’t really know.

Ultimately, the only thing that matters right now is finishing well – and if we finish where we’ve been racing most of the time, that’ll be important. Other than Bristol, we’ve had speed everywhere.

How I deal with a bad finish just kind of depends on the circumstances. You can dwell on it, or you can forget about it, move on and focus on what’s coming up next. But no matter what, I almost always work on my notes on Sunday night or first thing Monday morning after a race.

Taking notes is similar to what the crew chief and engineer do. I write down some notes to kind of serve as a capper to the weekend. I’ll write things like how the car handled at a certain stage in the race, or how a certain change affected it. It’s essentially just writing my thoughts down and having it to go back and look at.

A lot of times, I’ll write things like, “There was a bump in Turn 1 that was messing us up.” Then when we go back to a track, I re-read that and it triggers something in my brain. Then I can remember exactly the areas I had to work on, or where I was struggling last time. And hopefully, I don’t struggle the next time because I know how to get around it.

By Tuesday, I’ll pop in a DVD of the next track and watch last year’s race to refresh my memory on how things went.

Before Bristol, the track has us introduce ourselves to the crowd. I don’t get nervous about it, but last year was tough – I walked right past the microphone and didn’t know where I was supposed to be going.

I kind of wanted to be creative and say something cool to the fans, but by the time it was my turn, I thought, “There’s not really anything I can say that hasn’t already be said by someone else.” So I kept it simple.

Last Sunday was made even worse when my favorite college basketball team, Syracuse, lost in the NCAA Tournament. I had them in the Final Four.

I did a bracket this year, but I didn’t actually enter a pool. I did it just for myself, for the hell of it. And I had Louisville winning it all! They lost in the first game, so I pretty much threw it out after that.

I’m a Big East Conference fan, because I watch all the Syracuse games. I don’t know what’s going on with the Big East teams losing – they’re really not that bad. I mean, the worst team from the Big East that got in is one of the only ones left right now. So I don’t know what happened there.

I’ve always been a Syracuse fan. Growing up near Syracuse, there’s essentially no other sports. You’ve got the minor league baseball team and the AHL hockey team, but outside of that, the only sports to follow are at the university. Everyone always paid attention to what Syracuse was doing, and I just kind of picked up on it.

Since they’re on TV so much, when I moved down South it was easy to continue following them. It’s something to talk about, whether they’re playing good or playing bad.

I was really bummed, because I was hyping up a possible Syracuse vs. North Carolina matchup. But...yeah...Syracuse didn’t exactly do its part. So it’s probably a good thing I didn’t actually enter my bracket in any pools this year.