Brack

Good morning!

I'm in San Francisco today for a little rest and relaxation after our good showing last weekend at the Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey in Laguna Seca, Calif. We had a fast car all weekend long.

On Friday, the first day of qualifying, my car was very good and I won the provisional pole. That was very important, especially at a track like Laguna Seca. It is a great track, but it is really difficult to pass there. The track is pretty narrow and the straightaways are short. It felt really good to have a fast car on a road course. I've been known to many as an oval specialist. Hopefully that perception will change soon.

On Saturday, the second day of qualifying, we had a very fast car there as well. Cristiano da Matta and I were battling for the pole for most of the session. He set a pretty fast time early in the session and I was right there, just .1 seconds behind him. We put on a new set of tires towards the end of the session and I felt like we could catch him. When I went back out on the track I had a good lap working.

My team had told me da Matta had blown an engine and to watch out for oil. He had a large plume of smoke coming out of his car, and I was surprised they didn't throw the red flag. I'm also surprised da Matta stayed in the racing line, laying down oil all over the track. I need to be careful with what I say here, but I wasn't happy ... I'll just leave it at that. I ended up second Saturday, which is still pretty good.

I was with Chip (Ganassi, team owner) on Saturday night and we saw the end of the IRL race. What a great ending that was. And was even better that our fellow Team Target driver, Jeff Ward, won the race. It was the closest race in IRL history! Needless to say, Chip was really excited after Jeff's big win.

Sunday was a beautiful day for a race. The temperature was in the 70s and it was sunny. I was really confident and felt we had a great chance to win the race. But when the race started, I could tell it was going to be difficult to catch da Matta and even more difficult to pass him. The Target car was good, but not good enough that day to overtake the leader. However, I was able to lead a lap in the pit stop rotation and donate another $25 to Target House.

We ended up third on the day, which is a good effort for our team. Our other two drivers had good runs also. Bruno Junqueira finished behind me in fourth and Scott Dixon finished sixth. We are in the top-10 in points and if we have a few more good races, I think we will be in good shape for the championship at the end of the year.

San Francisco is a really neat city. Lombard street, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz are all some fun tourist places to visit. I also ate some great food and took some time to just relax before I go to Portland, Ore., for our next race this weekend. It's encouraging for our team to have some early success on the road courses. We have so many road and street courses in our circuit, it's important to put up as many points as you can on these types of tracks.

Portland is a flat road course with a long front straight. They use the front straight there for a drag strip when we're not racing. It's a place where you can get a run on the guy in front of you before Turn 1. I hope we can have another performance like we did last weekend in Laguna. It's good for the confidence of myself and the whole team.

I'm going to do some sightseeing now and see the beautiful city of San Francisco. Root me on this weekend at the G.I. Joe's 200 up in Portland! Talk to you later.

Kenny

Kenny Brack, the driver of the No. 12 Lola for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the CART season.