Follow A Dream–Fourth in Standings

Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team moved up to fourth in the national standings despite an early exit at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. Driver Todd Veney qualified 13th with a 5.71 and lost in the first round when the engine went silent behind the line following the burnout.

“The team put in a brand-new engine for this race, and we finally got the new supercharger that Jay had on order a long time ago,” Veney said. “We qualified only 13th but we were just a few hundredths of a second from being in the top four, so we were really looking for big things in eliminations. But then we got back to the pits and our whole weekend turned around.”

Touring pros Khalid alBalooshi, Phil Shuler, and Stevie Jackson showed up in the Follow A Dream pit with nine-year-old Jacob Delling, who lost both of his eyes to retinal cancer and really wanted to meet Blake. “Spending time with Jacob was the highlight of the event for us,” said Blake, who gave Jacob an extended tour of the trailer and the car, highlighted by seat time in the car, where Jacob familiarized himself with the controls and fell in love with the air-shift buttons.

“There will be other races,” Blake said. “We’ve won before and we’ll win again, but getting to spend time with someone like Jacob is what this team and Follow A Dream is all about. It was also great to see some folks from Permatex and TA/Petro this weekend. It’s always nice to have guests of our sponsors enjoy a day at the track.”