NASCAR on TV this week

Michael Annett Driver Diary: Summer Heat & Summer Fun

There weren’t too many highlights from our race at Charlotte last week. We had another issue with a spark plug wire coming off and it put us behind all day. We had to battle back from that. We got the Lucky Dog but the biggest problem really with the actual motor issue is when you run on seven cylinders for 100 laps, you really don’t know what kind of car you have.

That just got us way behind. It seemed like all day we were a pit stop or a few changes behind on the whole car. We dealt with that all day. It was another one of those deals where we had a bunch of adversity. When we have days like that, to finish top 15, it should still help us for the rest of the season.

The weather was really hot at Charlotte. We’ve been really fortunate with the weather so far until this weekend. Talladega was one of the hotter ones too. The biggest thing we do is we’re on a pretty strict workout regimen and that helps.

Normally two or three days before the race you go to Walmart and pick up a few liters of Pedialyte. We’ve found that the Pedialyte has so much more electrolytes than Gatorade and those drinks. That’s the biggest asset for us. You do that two or three days before and throughout the whole race weekend you try to take in as much water as possible because you sweat so much you lose so much water.

When it comes to eating, my biggest thing is I just don’t like eating any hot food the day of the race. As hot as it is the whole race weekend, the last thing I want to do is put a hot meal in my stomach. I just try to stick with a deli sandwich or something like that. Normally the night before if I can get some pasta, that’s good to get some carbohydrates, but during the actual day of the race the last thing I want is a hot meal.

As far as the warm weather off the track, I love being on the lake. That’s one thing I really like about living here in North Carolina more than Iowa. Our summer is so much longer down here. We’ve been on the lake quite a bit already. I like to spend time outdoors. On the off weekend I might head up to the Dan River up by Turnersville and just go tube down the river for a couple of days. Between the river and the lake I just like being on the water.

Reed Sorenson and I are really good buddies and normally when we go on the lake, he’s got a boat and I’ve got a boat and I’ll go tie up with him. Brian Scott has a boat. Those two guys are normally the ones I hang out with.

The movies are also a great way to beat the summer heat. I am a movie goer. The last one I saw was The Lucky One. I actually like going to chick flicks a lot. I’ve been trying to go see The Avengers for the past month but I can’t get anyone to go see it with me. Pastrana’s movie that’s coming out, that Nitro Circus 3D, I saw it’s coming out in August. I’m looking forward to that too.

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