08/20/2026
I’ve seen a few weekend reviews and figured it’s my turn. I’m sure most of you after Saturday night are tired of what I have to say, while others will actually now know what I’m saying and are not just hear static.
This is always a stressful race for me, Bob has given me a huge opportunity to officiate this race, my first priority is to carry out that duty in a manner that would make Bob and my late friend Olga proud. The two of them have been great friends and great supporters of my own racing. The integrity of racing means more to me than my involvement in it. I’m gonna be climbing back behind the wheel of a car this weekend and I will be way less stressed about screwing up my race than I stress over getting the Dream 100 right for all of you.  Most years after the Dream I don’t even wanna think about it for months, this year is different . I had to make gutwrenching calls, I missed some calls,  at the halfway break and after the finish, I was expecting some angry confrontations. None of that happened, there were a few that weren’t happy with calls made or missed. There was nothing but respectful conversation of calls and I have huge admiration for that. But as I sat back with one of Donovan Parkers beers (he wasn’t happy with a call missed) and watched most everyone with a smile on their face after a weekend of racing and hanging with family and friends that became racetrack family I was reminded of what makes this sport so enjoyable. The people. Sure the racecars are still awesome, and I still love trying figure how to get through the center better without killing my exit, but at the end of the day it’s really about everyone at the track. I’m excited and working on ideas for improvement . Transponders definitely had some issues, qualifying took way too long, line up needs to come out quicker under caution. I need to calm down on the radio, (passion turns into anger quickly). I’m confident we will make improvement in all those areas and make next years race even better.
 I just wanna thank everyone involved, our staff, Kenny Shepherd and the Madera staff, all the drivers and their crews. It takes everyone to make this event what it is. 
Thanks to you all, Mike