Race Weekend Central

Michael Annett Driver Diary: End of the Season and Looking Ahead

Phoenix was actually a pretty good weekend from the start. Practice went good, qualifying was OK. I think we ended up qualifying 17th and within the first 20 laps I think we were up to ninth, so the car was just really good in the beginning. We took two tires on the first stop and that made it too tight. In the spring race, towards the end of the race we were really tight and so we just put on two left sides to free it up, and that’s really what brought the car to life and got us a top-10 finish that time but this time it just made it way way way too free.

Michael Annett Driver Diary: Happy Halloween!

Charlotte was actually a really interesting weekend. We were OK last time we were there, but we were definitely not as good as we’d like to be so we unloaded with a baseline deal. Charlotte is kind of tricky because they give us an hour to practice when the sun is out and the track is just hot and slick and completely different than race time conditions. We kind of used that first hour of practice in the sun just to work up some ideas we had, not real practice for that race on Friday night. We tried some things and put them in our notes and then we had 50 minutes in the evening when it was closer to race time conditions. We picked up right where we left off and weren’t real good, but we thought we were competitive, probably a top ten, just needed to tweak on it a little bit throughout the race.

Michael Annett Driver Diary: Knocking on the Door, Politics, and Football

We were in Richmond last week. After practice I thought we definitely had a top 5 car that was going to be competing for the win. Then the green flag dropped and our car just went completely the other way. It was really loose pretty much through the whole corner at both ends and it took us about two or three stops to really get the grip we needed. We kind of ran around in 12th to 15th for the first 150 lap, made some good changes and got the grip we needed and then the last 100 laps we really started to move forward.

Richmond is the type of track where you really can’t relax. You have to be really aggressive there, whether you run laps by yourself or your racing, you just have to be aggressive and make the car work there. We got the grip we need and we were able to be aggressive and move forward. After making it through a couple of late race restarts and brought home another top 5 for our team.

Michael Annett Driver Diary: Indy, Home to Iowa, and Fan Safety First

When you’re growing up, as a little kid the two racetracks you always hear about and think about are Daytona and Indianapolis, the Brickyard. Those are the two tracks you always dream about racing on. I was really looking forward to making my first laps at the Brickyard. You hear so many things about the track, so many characteristics and all the history. I’ve been to a couple of Indy 500s and been a part of it and the atmosphere of what the whole track brings. I was really looking forward to being there and making laps and being part of the inaugural race. It was a lot of fun. Different from any other track we go to. Probably one of the most difficult tracks I’ve been to, not only making laps by yourself but then when you add 42 other cars it gets really difficult. It’s fun because as a race car driver, that’s what we enjoy is challenges and learning something new and the Brickyard obviously was that.