Friday, May 09, 2008 - 12:03 AM Updated: 12:04 PM

 

What a week. It’s amazing what winning a race does for you. I’m sure a lot of people already know that I won last Saturday night’s race at Richmond. It was my first win of the year and second of my Sprint Cup career.
It was important that we got that win early in the season because I think that continues to validate me as a driver and it helps prove that my team is a threat to win every week.
We started out the season leading the Daytona 500 with 17 laps to go until I got wrecked. We were horrible the next weekend in California and Las Vegas wasn’t much better. Since then, we’ve put together seven straight top 10s but hadn’t been able to break into the winner’s circle until last weekend.
I’m fully aware that all the drama from last weekend centered around Denny’s (Hamlin) flat tire and the wreck between Dale Jr., and Kyle Busch. As a matter of fact, someone in the media center asked me after the race if it bothered me if anyone remembered that I won. Really, it doesn’t matter to me. If anyone wants to know who won at Richmond, they can come by my house and see the trophy.
It’s always nice to race on Saturday night. I grew up racing modifieds in the
Midwest so I’m a dirt-racer at heart. We always raced on Saturday night when I was cutting my teeth so I really have fun in that type of atmosphere. Plus, we have so few weekends off in the Cup Series that a Sunday off is a pretty rare commodity.
That’s one reason why racing at Darlington on Mother’s Day weekend is so cool. When I found out a few years ago that they were installing lights at Darlington and that the Nationwide Cup Series would race here on Friday and Saturday night, I’ll be honest, I got pretty excited.
Darlington is so cool and there’s so much history here that to be able to race here at night makes it that much cooler.
 I was talking to long-time RCR crew members Will Lind and Danny Lawrence about the days when they raced at Darlington with Dale Earnhardt and how hot it would be here on Labor Day weekend. Based on what those guys were saying, I guess we’re pretty lucky to race at night too.
We practiced both the Nationwide and Cup Series cars yesterday and I really like the new surface. We struggled a little bit with the Jack Daniel’s Chevy on the Cup side but I think once we get it to go through the corners a little better we’ll be just fine.
The BB&T Chevrolet on the Nationwide side was pretty sporty in both practices so I think we should have a shot at it tonight.
Since the track has been repaved, speeds have picked up a bunch. I sat on the pole for the Cup race last year with a 29.8-second lap. Yesterday in Cup practice, we ran almost two seconds faster than that, which is about 10 mph faster than last year’s pole. The “Track Too Tough Too Tame” is fast. I can promise you that. We’re still running the same line around here, we’re just going a lot faster.
Speeds are up. The new surface has a lot of grip. It’s going to be a good show.

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