By Trevor Bayne
I had the weekend off; although I would have liked to have gone to Watkins Glen and get a little experience on a road course and maybe learn a little bit from watching Scott Speed and Marcos Ambrose. I really could have learned something from Marcos about running on a road course, after all he has won two in a row at the Glen.
However; I felt like my time was better spent in my hometown of Knoxville, where I hung out with family and made a few appearances at some of the local Toyota dealerships to promote me and the No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine next weekend at Bristol.
I drove back to North Carolina on Monday, hung out with some friends and played a little NASCAR EA Sports and of course got in a little wakeboarding.
Wednesday I participated in some media training with Toyota folks. I found it useful and it gave me a lot of pointers for when I am being interviewed on camera. It also taught me how to handle the media after an on track incident, how to approach them and how to maintain my composure and keep my cool.
Thursday I’m heading to Michigan and am excited to turn my first laps at Michigan International Speedway on Friday. From what I hear, MIS is the type of track that has multiple grooves; you can run it from the white up to the wall. To compete for a win there, you have to have a car that has the complete package, horsepower and the ability to run both high and low on the track. I am pretty positive that my crew chief Jerry Baxter will bring a car that has the complete package; it will just be up to me to get the job done.
So far this year I have been able to qualify really well, sat on the pole in Indy, had another pole taken away from me by Superman, Kyle Bush in my first outing in Nashville, I just haven’t had the finishes to go along with them. This weekend I’d like to snag another great starting position, keep my nose clean and stay out of trouble throughout the race and hopefully bring the Dream machine home top-10 or better.
I just found out that next week I will be the first guest on Trackside, and I’m pretty excited about it. Hope you all can check it out, it airs on Speed Channel at 7:00pm on August 21st. For all my fans, you can follow my daily activity on my Facebook page, thanks everyone for your support.
