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The Fast Lane: Action starting to pick up

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Updated May 18, 2009 5:46 PM ET
     
 

Looking back at St. Louis

Another solid semifinal finish at the O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, and we're closing in on that Winner's Circle. We have to balance patience and aggression at the same time. We're getting close to that first win! We did move up to third in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown with our last run, so we are making steady progress.

West Coast Visit

We had another weekend off. I'm learning to enjoy them because this is the time things start to get busy. After the next race in Bristol we race for three consecutive weekends. We'll do that a few times this year. The schedule is really going to start to pick up, and the blogs should be even more interesting. During my time off I flew out to California to meet up with Ryan Friedlinghaus of West Coast Customs. As I mentioned in an earlier blog I have a hot rod that I've been working on for a couple of years. It's been a little frustrating that I haven't really had the time to work on it so I've had to rely on other people, which explains the delay. I called Ryan after watching his TV program. I try to get creative by integrating opportunities to leverage with the racing program. There may be some exciting news on the horizon with a potential partnership with him (he may design one of my Funny Cars.)

Mother's Day

I was hoping to stay in California and spend a little time out there. My mom lives in Palm Springs, but I had to come back to Indianapolis to get back to work. We spend so much time on the road so we decided to just stay home all weekend. We took advantage of the nice weather and did a lot of yard work. I did hard labor for two days straight - I haven't done that in a while. I'm still sore. I think it's a little bit of a workout physically, but it's really rewarding. I think it's therapeutic to have family time together and let the kids run around outside. Someday I'd love to take the time to plant a garden. The highlight of the break was fishing with my son Desi. We have a pond out behind our house, but I'm not much of a fisherman. I cannot deal with baiting a hook. Fortunately, Dickie Venables, my crew chief came over and we went out on the deck and went fishing. To be honest I knew there were fish out there, but didn't realize there were big mouth bass. I bought my son a little Cars fishing pole that I really thought was just a toy, but he caught one of the biggest bass that I've ever seen. To my surprise, we reeled in a fish that was almost as big as the pole. Now I'm going to add fishing to my resume.

On to Bristol

On a plane soon to Bristol, TN. It's been one of the venues that has eluded me, as far as winning goes. We will be unveiling a new paint scheme which will feature the Jimmie Johnson Foundation. Still working through some of the details, but it looks like it will be a very exciting weekend. Until next time ... Tony Pedregon, a two-time NHRA Funny Car champion and 40-time race winner, will be sharing his thoughts and expertise before every NHRA race weekend in 2009. Have any questions or comments for the driver of the Quaker State NHRA Funny Car? E-mail him at tpblog@pedregonracing.com
Tagged: Jimmie Johnson

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