Happy new year to one and all. There is nothing like a change of the year number to breathe a little fresh air into life. New goals, new challenges, and a blank sheet of paper. Obviously 2008 was a bit of a challenge for me in a couple of ways. My career path took a couple of dips and dives. Around Thanks giving of 2007 I was going to leave RGM for Wood Bros., only to have an 11th hour change of heart. (Seriously...Wood Bros.???....What was I smoking???) I was glad that I stayed at Rob's and after "drinking the Kool-Aid" so to speak at the company xmas party, we were set to win 5 races and make the chase. After a torrid beginning of the season, the 5th crew chief of my RGM career started, and he promptly began the task of running RG out of the top 35, and used some bold tactics to get me launched out of RGM in July. It was a bit of a mind fuck for me. I have always been committed to a fault in my life, so I always had some romantic vision of spending my entire NASCAR career at one Cup team. I knew the buisness was not at all stable (NASCAR, not RGM necessarily), and I wanted to live above the bullshit, work tirelessly for one cause, build it the best I could, and leave when the time was right. Although my time was cut shorter than I imagined, I learned a lot, and I have no regrets about any of the decisions I made or any of the hours I worked.

Every end is a new beginning I suppose. After 3 months on the couch I took a job at Toyota Racing Development. But not before I started blogging for the planet, started The Hot Pass store and thehotpass.com with my friend BC, which was the primary reason that got him launched out of RGM too. Funny how that works. Unemployment loves company I guess. Unemployment also got me in trouble with the law, the dramas of which have yet to fully play out. I got a reckless driving ticket for ripping through the Tennessee mountains. I am on probation for that for another 3 months. I also got a speeding ticket visiting friends in New York (86 in a 65). Both of these tickets were in a week of each other. While my parents were in town for xmas I got a letter from NC DMV that my license is suspended as of 1.1.09 unless I requested a hearing since I got a speeding ticket over 75 mph out of state...Blah blah...so I have to defend my honor on the fifteenth....And my dad is wearing me out about speeding ticket.

Anyway...these are all silly problems, and I am a believer that the present is theatre for the future...so it's not all that bad. So horray for 2009. I have some interesting things planned for this year, and my new job hours should allow me to dominate them in the way that they deserve.

NASCAR is obviously pretty quiet just at the moment. There are driver swaps and mergers, but these are well covered in the mainstream media. They are not creating many, if any, new jobs, so they are not that significant around here. The best on track action until Daytona is for sure the Dakar Rally. Hopefully RG can continue to represent America well again in this event and win some stages. In honor of this event, thehotpass.com store is pleased to announce the "10 Stages of Dakar". Each weekday starting on January 5th The Hot Pass will release a different Dakar or Robby Gordon related item with no reserve. (Except for the 1st day, as the stickers will be buy it now only.) The picture below shows the order of items.

Happy New Year...Dominate on 3.

"10 Stages of Dakar"