Wow! What an awesome eight days for the DeWalt team and Roush-Fenway Racing. We were just starting to come back to earth following our Daytona 500 victory and we win again. Two-in-a-row for the No. 17 team and back-to-back wins for Ford—I’m not sure how we can top that … except for winning in Las Vegas!
While we really did have a good car for the race, there were some other factors that contributed to our success this past weekend.
First, when you win a race—and these races are really hard to win—your confidence level is increased by default. That goes for everyone on the team including Matt. It becomes a reminder that you can still do this; those reminders really make a difference. So, going into California we had a high level of confidence. Add to that the talent of our new crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer, and you’ve got a really strong foundation.
The other thing that really factors in for us is the support we get from the fans. The cheers from the grandstands and the congratulations we get from you guys make all the difference in the world to us. You guys are the reason that we’re able to do this each week and we appreciate having you as our fans.
Now, we put the Auto Club 500 behind us and concentrate on what we have to do to win the Shelby 427 in Las Vegas. Winning this coming week would make history as no driver or team has ever won the first three races of the season during the modern era. Can we do it? Absolutely. Matt has a great record at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and we have all the momentum we need to visit victory lane again.
However, there are a bunch of other teams—particularly Ford teams—which we will have to battle. Carl and Greg are really good there and David Ragan is knocking on the door. That No. 6 team is going to be really, really good very soon.
We are going to try and keep this going. The old saying is, “keep riding the horse until he breaks his leg”—that’s our mentality. I think it’s going to pay off.
Mike
For more information about Mike visit www.mikecalinoff.com
