If Ifs and Buts Were Raisins and Nuts, Every Day Would be Christmas

Written by Team USA. Posted in Driver Blogs, Feature, Neil Alberico

Published on August 07, 2013 with No Comments

Redlands, CA (August 7, 2013) – Well, we are past the halfway point of the 2013 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda and as a team we are sitting one-two in the point standings. With four races left, the championship is still up for grabs. The Cape guys have been doing such a stellar job all season, they are the reason behind all our success. I just got back from Mid-Ohio, coming home with two wins and two poles. The next race is at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and I couldn’t be more psyched. I guess you could call it my home race. I grew up about and hour north of that track in small town called Los Gatos. All that really means is I’m not buying flights to the next event! It’s still not quite close enough for me to sleep in my own bed though. (Fun fact: A.J. Allmendinger is from LG, too.) I think the whole team is going to fly out a day early and BBQ at my parents’ place. Were going to do the whole Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing team bonding fíesta. It’s going to be a great time.

This whole season so far has been just about as up and down as a season gets – five wins in 10 races and four DNFs. Overall second in the championship. Geez… Mentally it has been so tough to try and keep myself focused on the right things – basically doing my best to stay positive and feed off every win. Only taking the moment to learn from mistakes and not dwell too much on any one thing. “Oh, I should have done this or I should have done that.” It’s difficult not to think about the past in this sport. I believe the best guys are the ones who focus on where they are at this very moment and don’t worry about the past or future. I’ve got this new book I’ve been reading called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Super interesting book. It talks a lot about living in the present time and how that makes you appreciate the things that really matter in life; Friendship, joy, creativity, inner peace. There’s more to this world than just one race, I guess. For instance, if I’m 100 percent happy all the time, a race win isn’t going to change how happy I already am; I’m already at 100 percent. Great things happen all the time; you just have to be smart enough to recognize them. There are my words of wisdom for the day!

Mainly, my team, my friends and my family are the ones keeping me going. They are the ones that make everything worthwhile. Without them I have no idea where I would be right now. Probably living in my van surfing off the coast of Mexico somewhere. Fishing, hitting golf balls into the ocean, growing out my beard, drinking out of a coconut, sitting in a hammock and watching the sun go down.

Yesterday I saw myself on TV. That was weird. Our series got together with IMS Productions and NBC Sports Network to do a highlight show of the first half of our season. It was pretty good coverage actually. I really enjoyed it. The next airing is going to be on August 12, I believe. Big thanks to the series and everyone involved in getting our races on television.  Bravo, bravo.

Anyway, that’s all I got. I think I’m going to play a round of golf tonight after work.

Have a super spectacular day.

Neil

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