Ashley’s Weekly Blog
Monday, October 5, 2009

Happy October everyone! My husband Dan and I spent the week between the Dallas, TX race and the Memphis, TN race on the road. His younger sister Sandra joined the Army and is being deployed to Afghanistan in the next few weeks so we went to spend a few days with her in Illinois. It was great to have a little down time with Dan’s family since we don’t get to see them very often. Dan and Sandra are close in age so they’ve always been very close growing up. I’m so lucky to have her as my sister in law as she made me feel like part of the family when I first was dating Dan so we’ll really miss her while she’s gone and will be praying that she and everyone is safe over seas.

When we flew in to Memphis for the event after our days in Chicago last week we got to grab dinner at Beale Street one night which was great! It’s not very often that we get to see much other than the race track, hotel and airport so anytime we do get to do a little sightseeing we really appreciate it! I even started on a little Christmas shopping while I was there! You can never be too prepared, especially with our crazy race schedule!

The conditions in Memphis were perfect this weekend. The temperatures were cool and dry so we really got to push our funny cars to see what they would do. Besides the performance advantage, it was also really pleasant for all the teams to work in and the fans to enjoy some great racing in! We couldn’t ask for much more than that! On Saturday, before qualifying, dad and I got to go over and meet some Girl Scouts that had brought their dads out to the race for a Father Daughter Day. They asked us questions about racing, and working together and it was really neat to get to meet them since I used to be a Girl Scout and my mom Laurie was a Troop leader! I hope they enjoyed their weekend at the NHRA Drag Races with their dads.

On Sunday we were ready to go, but Mother Nature was not and after rain all day, they finally called the race at 3pm. It would be starting the following day, Monday, at 10am. At that time the teams packed up and headed home for the night. Dan and I grabbed dinner by the hotel and then watched the qualifying coverage that night and turned in early since the next morning would be an early one.

It’s Monday morning and I’m at the track and we’ve just warmed up our car. We are really hoping that the race will go as planned and we can get it all in today despite a few sprinkles this morning on our way here. I don’t want to spoil the race so I won’t tell you how today goes. Listen to live audio coverage on www.NHRA.com all day long or watch coverage of the entire event tonight on ESPN2. Wish us luck, have a wonderful week and I hope to be waving to you all tonight from the Winner’s Circle!