First of all, I wanted to mention a couple of things you can be praying for us about.  Our next speaking engagement will be in Myrtle Beach on September 21st.  It's going to be a different type of event for us and we're really excited about it. 

Can you believe it?  A record was set this weekend at Bristol.  This is one of the toughest tracks in NASCAR.  If you could only see this place.  It's a half-mile track and the stands just hover above it.  It was packed too with over 170,000 people in attendance. 

Now for a Game Plan For Life update.  LifeWay has finished the small group study and it's in most stores today.  I believe this study is really well done with excellent video introductions to the six topics.  If any group or church is looking for a great study, please consider this one.

I'll start out with a racing update and tell you how hard it is to win in professional sports.  About 16 weeks ago, we ran off a 10 race stretch where we won 7 races.  Denny Hamlin won 5 races and Kyle Busch won 2.  At that point, we were dominating after getting off to a rough start.  But the last 5 weeks have been extremely tough for us. 

I use this time to share personal thoughts in regards to what's going on in my life.  This past week, I had a pretty emotional moment.  Don Coryell, my coach in college, passed away. 

In our Nationwide Series--we had another win and a second place finish on Friday in Chicago.  Our Nationwide program has really been dominating and it has been just awesome to watch.

Unbeknownst to all but a handful of people, Joe Gibbs spent most of two days at Redskins Park on June 1-2. He met with many of the team's key veterans, two of their wives and about 20 players in all, sandwiching the time during the team's organized team activities.

He is involved. Very involved.

"I wanted to give back," Gibbs said in a telephone interview. "I just thought this was something I could do for the players."

Joe Gibbs talked money with the Redskins early last month. For help, he enlisted two university professors with Harvard MBAs.

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One of the most exciting things about our Game Plan For Life project is the new release of the Game Plan For Life small group study.  LifeWay put a lot into this study.  They came here and filmed at the shop with the co-host of the study, Derwin Gray.  We also filmed at the football stadium here as well.  I think this is extremely well done and the videos are good introductions to each topic. 

Even though America has come a long way in terms of race relations-far more than many other countries of the world-stereotypes do still exist. Perhaps there are some people you'd rather not have as neighbors. Certain nationalities draw your suspicions. They have customs and habits that feel-(to use a fitting word)-"foreign" to you.

We had been talking recently about how we've had the ten best weeks ever in the Cup series for us.  Two weeks ago, we follow that up with Sonoma.  It was the worst single racing day we've ever had with our cars! 

We know what kind of violent insults can be hurled at coaches whose teams miss the playoffs for a second season in a row. We hear of even college players-nineteen and twenty year-olds, remember-getting death threats after throwing more interceptions than touchdowns.

Ever had a Saturday when you woke up with about a half dozen things you wanted to accomplish, but you couldn't decide which task to tackle first? So you piddled at one of them for a little while, got stuck and started another, then left off to get busy with something else.

Coach Gibbs writes in Game Plan for Life about how many commercials, movie previews, and "Thursday night on Fox" announcements appear during a single televised sporting event. And because the makers of all these little clips know exactly who's watching them-you!-they know a little skin can go a long way when it comes to drawing your eye. They know how to sell you a lifestyle that looks and feels a lot better than yours.

Many a man has come to the place in life where every other alternative is blown. His best efforts at juggling problems and managing risk have left him with no way out, no way back, and no way forward. Perhaps he's just sitting alone upstairs in the dark, realizing for the first time in a long time that no answers are down there swimming at the bottom of his drinking glass.

If left entirely up to your legs, back, feet, and side, there would never be a jog that lasted long enough to do you any good. Your brain can envision leaner muscles, better conditioning, greater endurance, and that deep, rich feeling of accomplishment, but your individual body parts don't care one bit about that. They just want out. They want this over. They want a long squirt of water and a place to sit down.