Landon Cassill Driver Diary: All Stars, Penalties & Mom

We’ve had some good finishes but we definitely need to get better. We’ve had good runs and have been competitive. We’ve kind of struggled with engine failures more often than anything else. So we’ve been working on that, but our cars have been getting better every week.

It was nice to finish 20th at Richmond. We ran really good at Talladega before we got caught up in a wreck, and we had a solid run at Darlington. I’m looking forward to the All-Star weekend, but I’m also looking forward to another points race that really matters so we can keep working our way up the points.

We’ve got a 50-point gap right now to the 36th position in owner points, so the risk of falling outside the Top 35 in points isn’t quite there like it was six or seven weeks ago. We’re happy to be there, but we just need to keep moving forward and get ourselves up the points now for the rest of the season.

Regarding the incident between the [Nos.] 39 and 51 team last weekend, I think Kurt Busch is a habitual offender so I agree with NASCAR’s penalty there. I think “having at it” is OK for the racetrack but when you take other people’s safety, people who are not strapped into a racecar and safe inside of a racecar it’s very irresponsible and immature. I support NASCAR’s decision for sure.

I was surprised, however, that NASCAR didn’t do anything to Danica [Patrick] in her incident but I suppose if you keep it on the racetrack … I don’t believe that using your car as a weapon in any form is a smart thing or a very professional thing to do at all. But in the situation at Darlington, you have to look at the people involved and when Kurt Busch is involved in something like that it’s just kind of obvious what you’re dealing with I think.

But enough of that! It was Mother’s Day this weekend and my mom came into town and she went to the race with me. She spent the week with me here in Charlotte, so I had a nice time with my mom and we’ve had a good time. She had a good Mother’s Day. On Sunday, we had BBQ and I took her to brunch, got her some flowers and we spent the day together.

Speaking of love, The Bachelorette has been getting a lot of attention with Ricky Hendrick’s former fiancée playing the role of the eligible bachelorette. Personally, I’m not too interested in reality show love finding. I think true love is a very sacred thing and I don’t think it’s meant to be displayed on TV like that.

Anyway, back to racing. This will be my second Showdown and it’s just a fun race. It’s a great race to go to. It’s 15 minutes from my house. It’s close to everybody’s home in the racing industry. But it’s close to home, it’s a short day. On Friday, we only have an hour of practice.

Saturday is a 40-lap race. It’s just laid back. There’s no stress. It’s just fun! I’m looking forward to it in that aspect. Hopefully, we can make something happen and maybe have a great finish or even have a good enough finish to get in the All-Star event. Either way, it’s a good race and we can learn something for the Coke 600.

It would be huge if we could make it in. It’s a major longshot, but I think it’s a fun race and since there are no points you can just go all out with all you’ve got and maybe we will make it!