Jeff and I just had the opportunity to experience the United States Air Force Thunderbirds up close and personal and all I can say is WOW.

What amazing pieces of machinery and what amazing folks within the squad. What a great way to showcase one of our nation's branches of the armed forces and represent all of our friends and loved ones who are fighting for our freedoms.

The F-16 jets that the pilots fly are so sleek and powerful. For the flyover at Sunday's 50th Running of the Daytona 500, six jets will be flying in formation overhead at speeds around 400 mph, perfectly sychronized only feet away from eachother. Adorned with America's colors - red, white and blue - the jets' arrival will be perfectly timed with the ending of the National Anthem.

Check out our pictures from the meet and greet on the homepage and watch for some amazing video footage coming soon from Jeff.

But most definitely DON'T MISS this display on Sunday.

Two successful drivers are back in action this weekend after being sidelined last year by racing-related injuries - injuries that would've made me think twice about getting back behind the wheel if not kept me away all together were I in their shoes.

Bobby Gerhart is back in his No. 5 Chevrolet for Saturday's ARCA 200 at Daytona after being taken out of championship contention in 2007. In July at Pocono Raceway, Gerhart was involved in an accident that resulted in a back and neck injury which sidelined him for the rest of the season.

He's making his comeback in an event where he's the defending winner, three races deep, on a track where he's won five races in total and four pole awards.

"I'm feeling great," Gerhart said. "I feel better now than I have in many years. 

"Aside of the injuries, we had a championship run going, and we had it yanked out from under us. It was tough. But through it all, I realized how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many people who care, and these are the things you learn when you go through something like this. It's been a long road, but I'm feeling really good."

Gerhart may have worked so hard for a comeback for one more chance to win what is the most important race for him - the Daytona 200.

But another driver who's been just as successful, if not more so in his own career, is making a comeback this weekend after an even more damaging accident and horrific season.

Fourteen-time Funny Car Champion John Force has little more to accomplish in his career if you look at the record books. He's won more races (125), won more championships and won more rounds (992) than Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney and Don Prudhomme, combined. He also holds a record, that may never be broken, of qualifying for 395 consecutive races.

But for all the records, Force was not immune to a devastating season.

At the beginning of last year, Force's teammate, protege and friend Eric Medlen died in a testing accident in Florida. And in the midst of his 30th season in the sport, Force was involved in the most serious accident of his pro career, one that left him with broken bones in both hands and feet and serious tendon and ligament damage to a right knee already weakened by the effects of childhood polio.

That season changed his outlook on his career from one solely built on winning to one where he wants to make the sport that he's lived for safer for the next generation of drag racing stars. That next generation happens to directly include Force's daughter Ashley as well as his son-in-law, Robert Hight.

"I'm glad I crashed," Force said recently during one of the physical therapy sessions to which he religiously has adhered the last four months, "because so much good has come out of it. We spent 35 years out here and all we ever thought about was an E.T. (elapsed time) slip. Now we're making things safer for the next generation.

"This new car may not work," he continued, "but if I don't win a race this year, I won't complain. I don't want to be remembered for the most wins. I want to be the guy that made Eric Medlen's life count for something."

Force implemented several safety changes on his team's cars after Medlen's accident and attributes those changes to saving his own life during his accident. Additional changes were made to the car before this weekend's season opening CARQUEST Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.

No matter what the reason for these two driver's returns to their sport, they sure are driven to compete. Hopefully they can both return to their winning ways and show folks that with determination, so many obstacles can be overcome.

I ran into a gentleman the other day at Daytona International Speedway who had some great Grand Am sports car stories from his 25 years of employment with the track. The Rolex 24-Hour Endurance race is in its 46th year.

The one I found most interesting was to hear him tell of times before they ran the race under lights. Back in the day, the track lights were only used for NASCAR events, as the sports cars have headlights.

He told of how the cars' brakes would glow so hot heading into the road course section. In the darkness, infield spectators could see the brakes glowing yellow heading into the road course, then turning red and he said, even blue before the end of the infield road course.

Wow, that's crazy to me. He also explained to me how the pit crew members can change an axle in less than 12 minutes and the brake pads as well in record time. They have some special gloves that can handle the heat of the pads.

During the course of the race, teams are able to change virtually anything on the car except the engine and the chassis.

Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but that all sounds pretty amazing :)

Wish I could pull my car in for a quick service. Mind changing the oil too?

The policy at Hendrick Motorsports of sharing everything among its teams is interesting to me, especially after seeing the struggle the McLaren team had between its two teams in this year's Formula One season.

According to the word that comes from the Hendrick camp, the four teams under its umbrella share everything from start to finish throughout a season. It appears there's room for interpretation among the teams where each one adapts the information gathered for its own structure and driver, but they all seem to be afforded access to what each team is working on and which things are working and not working for the organization.

And it's worked for them this season. Two of their four teams are the only ones left fighting for the championship this weekend at Homestead. And those two teams dominated the whole season. The other teams as well have held their own in the field.

This success bodes well for next season when the COT enters the competition full-time. Hendrick has certainly demonstrated a command over the new car. Could that be from the team's philosophy of building the best organization rather than the best individuals?

Not to say that Hendrick isn't full of superstars. In fact, it looks like they may have a powerhouse team of four superstars next season. But the key word there is team.

And seeing how McLaren handled a similar situation this year where its superstar drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton battled the whole season for the Formula One championship makes me see a value in how Hendrick has chosen to structure its organization.

With McLaren, they had to release statements to the fact that one team wasn't getting favorable treatment over the other or being told to yield to one another. They had to make this assertion because it was being publicized that maybe they were playing favorites with their drivers.

In the end, the teams weren't asserting how happy the organization was to be where it was at and the drivers didn't seem to be happy for one another.

And in the end, neither driver ended with the title and the team is left with one superstar and a team to rebuild after Alonso decided to leave early apparently because of the way he felt out of place with the team.

Now I know it's a little like comparing apples to oranges, but it shows how one powerhouse team can be successful by working together, while another fell apart by not working together.

I would like to take this opportunity to commend Leilani Munter. The budding race car driver made a commitment to purchase an acre of endangered tropical rainforest for every Indy Pro Series race she runs.

In 2007 she purchased two acres from the World Land Trust, one each for her Indy Pro Series starts at Kentucky and Chicagoland Speedway.

"We need to start taking better care of our planet," Munter said. "I felt a responsibility to do something about the impact I have on the environment because of my racing career. I am speaking out about my actions in hopes of bringing awareness to race fans and the racing community. If I can get one person to think twice about their impact on the Earth and start recycling and conserving energy, then it's working."

This isn't just a publicity stunt for Munter. She's the real deal who practices what she preaches.

Munter, who holds a degree in biology from the University of California San Diego, is well known for her support of wildlife and environmental causes. She hosts a section on her official site called Leilani's Earth Watch which is dedicated to environmental issues and clean energy. She also has a blog where she is known to speak about green issues. Munter has been a PADI certified scuba diver since 1994 and during her college years was a volunteer at the Stephen Birch Aquarium, part of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Munter also volunteered for three years at Project Wildlife - a wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and release center based in San Diego, Calif.

She also sports sponsorship from an eco-conscious company on her Indy Pro Series ride. Her current sponsor is SMART Papers, who are a leader in recycled papers and who make an effort in several of their business practices to do the best thing environmentally.

Munter's mechanism is spot on in the fight to curtail global climate change.

She's first AWARE of her footstep and then, secondly, harnesses the POWER of ONE to make a change.

Awareness is definitely a start, because we can't begin to deal with a problem unless we acknowledge that one exists. ACTION is key and she's showing one way that action can co-exist within our lives.

Munter hasn't changed her dreams in order to affect climate change. She didn't give up driving a race car to eliminate her carbon footprint with it. She instead is taking the action to counter that footprint by creating something sustainable that will forever address her race-car's impact.

I know that everyone is not afforded the privilege that Munter is, we can't all afford to buy an acre of rain forest to counter our daily drive to and from work. But here's the ticket, we can each help in our own way, as she's helping in her way. And we can do it, just like her, by not abandoning the way we live our lives, but rather by adjusting the way we live our lives to create a more sustainable future.

We all have the power; the POWER OF ONE. To harness that power, first become aware. Then, discover the little ways you can change the way you do things and make the commitment to act.

I'm including some links for a few tips and ideas.

Or so it may seem by the recent influx of drivers to the series. Could it be that far-fetched? Juan Pablo's done it and Jacques Villeneuve made the leap as well.

So maybe the time is ripe for Alonso to make the move. It might seem plausible if there were any worthy rides left for next year's Sprint season, but I can't really see him jumping ship for RYR or any of the other struggling teams.

But where's he going to go in Formula One? Back to his former team with which he won his championship? They sure struggled this year, hardly putting up a fight. And his rumored move to Ferrari was squashed by the team's contract extension of Felipe Massa. BMW, maybe?

Whichever team, I can't see him having much better of a chance for the title next year, if this year is any indication.

Water is scarce around Atlanta these days, with the city and surrounding areas suffering a devastating drought, but somehow water was found in two (possibly three) NEXTEL Cup cars' fuel cells after Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at AMS.

Denny Hamlin and Dave Blaney both saw there Atlanta chances hindered by water in their fuel cells. It's still unconfirmed, but suspected, that pole sitter Greg Biffle also had water in his car's fuel cell.

Where did the water come from? Officials at the track didn't find any evidence that the water came from Sunoco's supply. But if not, where? It's odd that three different teams and even manufacturers were affected by the same seemingly obscure problem.

And team members from both teams are perplexed by the water.

"All day we had been getting water in our fuel," Hamlin said. "The water displaces fuel, and so we weren't getting the full potential of fuel. We took it apart again [after the race] and pulled some gas out of [the] fuel cell and again we get water."

Blaney's team also found water in the fuel both early in the race and at the end of the race.

"We had water in our fuel from the get-go, all day," said Blaney crew chief Tommy Baldwin. "We put [the car] back in the garage and worked on it and didn't know what was going on. We drained it - half water and half fuel.

"There might have been some remnants still in there. I'm guessing we were probably one of the first ones to get fuel - us and the [No.] 11 this morning or something. We're trying to find out the chain of events now."

It's all the buzz now; the recent flood of open wheel stars leaving their familiar territory for the unknown. And of course, everyone questions why each particular driver is making the switch.

Is it for the money? That may definitely be the case with Sebastien Bourdais' switch to Formula One. The frenchman, who is Champ Car's leader in everything Champ Car, has only won slightly over half a million dollars so far this season, in his much expected march to a fourth consecutive series title.

He stands to make that in just a few appearances in Formula One, where the driver's yearly salaries stand in the millions.

I know, Bourdais who? In his case it may be a multi-faceted desire to get out of Champ Car. The money isn't there and neither is the fame. I sure haven't ever seen him in a McDonald's commercial, despite his sponsorship by the team for the last few years. And his move to a much more popular international racing series may garner him the fame his ego may desire.

But if Formula One brings a driver international fame and money, as the series definitely creates fabulous, elite superstars living the good life, what's Jacques Villeneuve doing trying his hand at NASCAR?

He's got plenty of money. He's got quite a bit of fame, why not just retire? His may be the case of just plain fun. The Canadian driver didn't seem ready to retire when he was ousted from Formula One last year. Of any series, that one doesn't seem to want to keep you around when you've outgrown that playboy persona.

And when presented with a 'forced' retirement, what's a race car driver supposed to do when he's still got the need for speed. Why not try another series? Especially another series that is today quick to welcome international drivers in order to garner some more international acclaim.

What a symbiotic relationship. This newly embarked upon international venture seems to be working for NASCAR and a number of the recently welcomed international drivers (Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Villeneuve). With those three drivers, NASCAR's market just grew three-fold, garnering attention in South America, Europe and Canada and these drivers have the chance to continue racing, earn boatloads of money and gain much more fame.

Juan Pablo Montoya's benefiting already from it after just one year in NASCAR. And with all the other cross-series jumps happening recently, it seems that any driver can find an open door for the pursuit of money, fame and fun.

Maybe a NASCAR star will be the next to make the jump. I can see it now, Dale Jr. tires of the money and fame in NASCAR and makes the switch to IndyCar just for the fun of it.