[Michael Beard]

Thank you -- all of you! This weekend was the most unbelievable weekend of my life.

THANK YOU:
- Herb McCandless, Jr. and Piedmont Dragway for the second entry. I was just going to go single, but when Herb's driver couldn't make it, he allowed Randy Larson and I to use those entries to double up. (Oh, BTW... 3-$5K's and 2-$1K's for $197 July 4th weekend at Piedmont. BE THERE!)

- Rodney Finchum for welding up my header. I broke the #4 header tube first thing on Friday... cracked ALL the way around. I used two Mountain Dew cans and two hose clamps to get through the day. After getting beat at six cars, we put it on the trailer, and Randy and I got the header pulled in (relatively) short order. Finchum welded 'er up inbetween rounds of the gambler's race! You're too cool, man.

- Randy Larson, self-proclaimed pit b*tch. I very literally could not have physically done it without your help. Leaf blower for the trans, box fan for the motor, and my battery charger. We ran the *snot* out of the Volare, making runs as close as 7 minutes apart, timeslip to timeslip. It was crazy.

- Scott Macy for the loaned rear end after I hurt a ring & pinion last week. Even if he did ask for it back in the semis. Scott's been my go-to guy for a large number of projects on this car, emergency and otherwise, from wiring to transmissions and rear end setup, and more.

- Bristol Dragway staff... it was a blast and an honor working with y'all from the announcer's booth last year, and from the driver's seat this year it was even more impressive. I run 9" M/T radials on my car, and the 60's varied a total of two numbers in 38 runs over the course of 3 days (and that's including the slow ones when I had my cobbled patch job on the header!) Simply amazing.

- Steve Stites and Jared Pennington. What can we say? Everyone appreciates what you've done for your fellow racers so much, from putting together an absolutely top-notch event to having to sit on the sidelines and watch your creation unfold round after round with the best footbrake racing on the planet.

- To all those who had a hand in the extras for the event - Jeg's, BTE, Mickey Thompson, and all of the other sponsors, Bug McCarty and the ladies who kept us hydrated in the lanes, Brandon Bailey, Fern, and everyone involved.

And of course, to all my sponsors - Duck Tape brand duct tape, Mickey Thompson, K&N Filters, Bradley Auto Parts/Bumper-To-Bumper, Bearden Oil Co./Sunoco Race Fuels, Joe Gibbs Racing Oil, Sloan Racing Engines, Macy Motorsports, Billy Nees Race Cars, my dad Stephen Beard, and my teammates Matt Zapp and Terry Knott. Heck, EVERYONE!

I never would've imagined pulling off something like this. Been driving the same as always... just goes to show that anyone can do it. It's impossible for all those close races to fall one way, yet they did.

Congrats to Bob Tatum and Scotty Richardson for your wins.

Thanks to Angela Macy for the awesome pics and video, and Robert Ellison for more great pics!

Hope I didn't forget someone!

NOTE: This post is being made more than 24hrs after the race. At the time the race was over, we added another oxymoron to the likes of "athletic scholarship" and "jumbo shrimp"... "Beard, speechless."

About all I could come up with was "OH. MY. GOD."


Thank you, everyone, for being a part of an unbelievable weekend I will never forget.