My cousin and spotter Kole Kahne is getting married back home in Enumclaw, Wash., so I'm spending my off weekend doing the whole wedding thing.
I'm glad it's him and not me. I'm not looking to get married anytime soon, and I hope nobody is planning to set me up like always seems to happen at weddings.
My parents and friends know better than to do that, I think.
I'm not even taking a date, just like I didn't take a date to the Nextel Cup banquet in New York City at the end of last season. Once you take somebody to a banquet or something, everybody thinks you have a girlfriend and it gets written up in the magazines.
I don't have a girlfriend right now and am not looking for one. So when I take somebody to something like this, you'll know it's because I have a serious relationship.
I'm not the best man this weekend, but I am in the wedding party. I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of people there that I don't know that will want something, whether it's a picture or an autograph.
But I'm not going out there for an autograph session. I'm going to support my cousin and hang out with friends.
I looked at the weather report and it looks like it'll rain every day, so that means it'll be snowing in the mountains. Hopefully, I can get up there and ride around on one of my snowmobiles that I keep at home.
I really don't have anything on my schedule, which is unusual. You always look forward to the bachelor party. I'll probably be hurting the next morning when that's over.
I've been to some great bachelor parties the last five years. A lot of my friends already are married. Coming from a small town, people tend to get married and have kids at an earlier age.
As I said, I'm a ways from that.
Mainly, I'm looking forward to some good snowmobiling and good dinners at home. My mom's cooking one night and my dad always cooks, too, so I'm pretty sure there'll be plenty to eat.
It'll be nice to be just Kasey Kahne and not Kasey Kahne the race car driver for a change. My friends and family treat me normal, and we do the normal stuff we've always done in the past.
I'd much rather be racing, though. I'd rather race for a month and a half or two months at the start of the year and then regroup. I don't want to be taking time off. We just started.
We had a great car out in California last weekend before the engine went. We had a shot at a top-10 for sure and definitely could have battled with those guys for the win after leading a lot of laps early.
When something bad happens, you want to get back in the car and be a part of figuring these cars out and winning races again, not going to weddings. When you're off, you can't do that.
All we know for sure is we burned a piston. We think it had something to do with air. The unleaded fuel probably was part of the issue, but for what reason I'm not sure.
It doesn't worry me too much. I don't think it was a problem with Evernham engines because all the other Evernham engines were fine. We just had a separate problem.
I spent all day Wednesday at the Car of Tomorrow test at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. I'm excited to see what happens with this car when we get it on the track for real later in the month. It's going to be a lot different than what we've had in the past.
But mostly this week is about getting through the wedding and then heading to Las Vegas to get back in the car again.
I like weddings, but I'd rather be driving.
Kasey Kahne is driver of the No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge and a 26-year-old native of Enumclaw, Wash. Kahne will take ESPN.com readers inside his life on and off the track each week through writer David Newton.