Monday, February 23, 2009

Well, it is late and I am back in my motor-home at Homestead Race Track just outside Miami Florida, after a long day of testing for me. Actually, it was a long day waiting to finally start to test this evening! I am going to make this brief because I need to get some sleep. I had a great first day on the race track today! I finally got to drive our IndyCar! I think my godfather, Paul Newman, would have been very proud and excited for me as it was his favorite kind of racing and one of his greatest passions in life.

So, I made through the day with no problems. I learned more about about the car and it was great to go that fast around the race track. Al Unser Jr was there coaching me and the other rookies today and enjoyed the time on the track. I am looking forward to getting in the car again tomorrow and see what I can learn.

I did get the car to just go full throttle and felt comfortable at an average of just over 203 mph average per lap and if I knew to shift down against the wind, and back up a gear, the crew chief said we would have picked up a few more miles per hour average. So it was a very good first day today, no crazy things happened and we kept all four tires glued to the race track.

Tomorrow there will be a lot more cars on the track and we will go out and pick up some more speed and fine tune the set up.

Live Free and Fast,

Stanton

I wanted to update all our race fans about our recent preparations for the
2009 Interush Racing season!

Last week I flew from a breif pre-season holiday in Mexico to Indianapolis
for the IndyCar Race League Annual Meeting and also to meet with my new IRL
race team, called Team 3G. I spent two days there getting physical tests
done, in several league and team meetings, and also posing for the official
IndyCar driver portrait in the new Interush Racing race suit. This is my
first IndyCar race suit and I was very proud to start to show this off with
my IndyCar Team sponsor logos.

The seat is made of very small (2 mm) round foam balls that they put in a
special large plastic bag. They mixed the foam balls with a blue glue and
then lay it in the race car. I got into the car which molded the foam balls
around my body to give me the most support and comfort. The foam is energy
absorbent as well, for when you sustain high g-impacts in a crash. It also
molded to my exact body shape to limit any movement and provide optimum
support. After the seat had formed around my body, I got out and they
suctioned all the air from the plastic bag to retain the exact shape. The
next day when the seat was completely dry, they removed the plastic bag and
made some additional modifications to cut out areas to allow my arms to move
when steering, and adjust for devices that I will have to be able to reach
during a pit stop, or during a race.

It was exciting for me to get a few steps closer to actually starting to run
the Indy race car. Our team has our first IndyCar tests set up on a 1.5
mile oval track on Feb 23, 24 and 25 near Miami, Florida, and then again on
March 10, and March 22 and 23 in Alabama at a great road course track. I
will be rushing straight from the west coast to the east coast after I race
in the Interush NASCAR race in California on February 21, to go test the
IndyCar in Florida. Then I'll head straight from the east coast test in
Florida, to go race NASCAR in Las Vegas on February 28.

This has been my dream to complete in IndyCar and NASCAR at the same time
and I could not be more excited than I already am.

Check back for updates about our IndyCar tests and NASCAR preparations, and
please remember to mark September 19, 2009 on your calendar, when I'll see
you at the Motegi Race Track in Japan!

Live Free and Fast,

Stanton