I thought that all of the tributes paid to Eric Medlen by the racers made Houston very special. I didn't know Eric and when watching him on TV, he always struck me as kind of goofy (Not really goofy like me, just kind of goofy) and of course very enthusiastic. It struck me that JFR was the right place for him, because his enthusiasm reminded me of Force a bit. But I had no idea how sincere a person he was or how friendly to everyone he was or any of those things. So it was great to here those stories. My favorites included of course the story Brandon Bernstein told about ice cream (if anyone doubts the truth of the healing powers of ice cream, just ask any single woman which two guys she can count on most: 95 percent of the time you get Ben and Jerry), and what Greg Anderson said he told John Medlen how he admired Eric so much for having such a good outlook on life. It was so great to see everyone with the black T-shirts honoring Eric. Thanks to all of the racers for what they did for Eric. And that Top Fuel Final was so special. On the one hand you were cheering for the Hartleys to win because they were such underdogs and on the other hand you wanted JR to win for Eric. So in a way you were going to be happy and sad no matter how the race turned out. And that characterized the weekend-we were happy because of the way the racers celebrated Eric's life and shared their remembrances of him. As a result we learned more about Eric and learned a bit from him as to how to live better. On the other hand, his not being there and learning more about him made us even sadder over his death.

Dave, that pretty much says everything I was feeling over the weekend, especially the bit about not really knowing Eric or following him, but finding out how sincere he was way too late as he would have had one extra fan cheering for him on raceday.