November 5, Concord, NC--- FRIDAY AFTERNOON’S THIS AND THAT--- Unless more cars sign in today before qualifying (very unlikely at this time – 3:40pm), there are 31 Modifieds and 18 SK-type Modifieds in the pits… Burt Myers is running in the No. 1 Sport Modified… People are looking at the skies, as there is a big dark cloud beyond the tri-oval. Weather Bug shows a 20% chance of showers this evening… We really enjoy Pizza Hut pizza, which is what they serve at Concord Speedway. But please don’t tell me that I’m the only one that prefers NOT to have pepperoni on it… Wondering what happened to Shawn Courchesne. Did he not show up this year because he thought that the heralded Fat Boy Challenge was called off? We just couldn’t spot his Hartford Courant sponsored Toyota Camry no matter how hard we looked,,, One thing what Lori & I always look forward to is stopping at local Sagebrush Steakhouse in Sherrill’s Ford. After last night’s sojourn, we have decided to stop stopping there… As long as we’re at it, every year, Long Island transplants John & Cindy Manno open there home to us, allowing us to camp out in their spare bedroom. As usual, we can’t thank them enough, even though, commitments don’t allow them to spend any time at this year’s Shootout… Oh yeah, Happy 6^th Birthday to Mark Manno (we forget that, then we become persona non gratis really quick)…

Have we mentioned that the big dark cloud behind the tri-oval is getting darker and bigger? No rain yet. Well, there is a couple of drops on the pressbox window. Meanwhile, crews are scrambling a little bit quicker, as cars are getting covered up… Well, it’s about an hour until qualifying. Well be keeping an eye on that cloud… More later…