When I was growing up my dad would always say, “A Family that Races Together, Stays Together.”

As a kid, you never truly comprehend the words your parents speak. At that time, my dad had already given up the wheel to raise a family. Yet, he and my mom would take us to the track each Saturday night at Islip Speedway (NY). When I was 15, I got an opportunity to do something which would end up leading me to my career. My family and I traveled around the Northeast part of the US for the next several years following the NASCAR Modified Tour while I scribed stories, columns and features for trade papers such as Area Auto Racing News (still in existence today and for any racing fan is a must read) and Speedway Scene.

I figured that phrase my folks would always use just kept them from arguing about how much we were away from home and to stop my brother, Matt, and I from fighting. My dad would always say if we fought too much, then we wouldn't go to the track that weekend. But we knew when the weekend would come, no matter what, we would be heading to a racetrack.

I have worked in many different arenas. A stint in Burger King as a 17-year-old showed me that was the last style of job I ever wanted. I've worked for my dad in the roofing business, in the local news business and even in the television promotion world, but work would always come back to my passion, racing.

I started my own production company in 1992 just to put a show on a local network (News 12 Long Island) about racing in that area. After five years and a stint with broadening the show to a regional basis, I decided it was time to quit. The long hours (I worked 52-straight leading up to the night before my wedding and got sick on my honeymoon) and working two jobs wore on me. That and I needed a new challenge. I was bored.

I got a lucky break while on vacation in 1997 when TNN wanted a new television reporter for their motorsports coverage. A few weeks later I picked up the family, with a wife that was six months pregnant, and moved to North Carolina.

Since then I've worked for TNN, till its demise from the motorsports industry, and joined the SPEED network, which I still work for and enjoy to this day.

Still, it was not till recently that I realized what my father had always preached was the truth, “A Family that Races Together, Stays Together.”

After a while, the road can certainly get to you while traveling what many of us call the “circus” that is the NASCAR Cup circuit. I needed a diversion. My daughter had been begging me to let her drive a racecar. She was only 11, but was persistent. She had been going to the Summer Shootout with her Uncle Matt the prior couple of years and enjoyed it. I finally gave in 2005.

Now, four years later, we have a pretty decent size organization, from Quarter Midgets to Super Late Models in an 8,000 square foot shop. And the reason I say “we” is that the organization involves a lot of people, a family of sorts.

My normal family, especially my wife, puts up with a lot of stuff. We've been through a bunch, but she is the anchor from the family aspect. She is my best friend. My oldest daughter is truly becoming an unbelievable person and a pretty darn good racer. My other daughter does not want anything to do with driving a racecar. That's fine. She's our swimmer and a good cheerleader for our team. She also is pretty good with the mic when I catch her practicing her reporting and she knows everything that goes on during a race. Hmm. My son, well, he's got the fire to be a great driver and he won his first-ever Quarter Midget race. A big wreck in just his third race shook both him and dad, but he's itching to get back behind the wheel. He's been fast in testing!

My brother is an important part of our team from all aspects. I'm not a mushy guy, he is, but I love when he is a part of our team. It's easier for me to say that here than to him in person. Mom and Dad, well, they are moving down to North Carolina soon and we need their help desperately. Dad will be a great shop foreman.

But here's the deal, our race team has become family. That's not a lie. We have fun like a family, argue like a family, worry like a family, cry like a family and talk about the future like a family.

The Stroupes, from Iron Station, NC, have become some of the closest friends our family has ever had. Their kids, Zach and Nick, race for our team and it's tough mixing business and pleasure sometimes, but it's worth the effort. Most people around the racing scene know where there is a Dillner, there probably is a Stroupe and vice versa. We will stick up for each other in times of need and have plenty of laughs as well. Plus, the kids get along so well and that is a special thing that you don't see often.

I have this guy that is our Director of Racing Operations. Sounds like a big job, doesn't it? Well, it is, especially because he has to deal with my idiosyncrasies all the time. And he is also the guy that has to be the bearer of bad news to other folks when I don't particularly like something that is going on. But Duke (as we call him), in just a few years, has become one of my best friends and now I am going to be his Best Man when he gets wed to his bride, Mandy (another one of our closest friends), on my birthday in November. What a present.

The team is special because I it feels like I have a lot of little brothers, especially Bond Suss and Dustin Archer. Both guys have done and will do bigger things than our team in this sport, but they have been integral part of our success. More important though, they too have become family. Whether it's advice given or a laugh shared, it's always enjoyable with those two. Dustin's got a great girl, Julie, who makes him softer, in a good way. Bond I have known longer than any of these people and he is just a great person. He has a lot of qualities I wish I had. We just understand each other. He also has one of the cutest babies I have ever seen and his wife Lisa is his anchor as well.

There are a lot of other volunteers as well; Bob Bachner, an awesome buddy who is probably the only neighbor I truly am friends with; Derrick Pernesiglio, who I have known since I was a teenager and is one of the hardest working guys I've ever met at the track; Scottie Zurawski, a guy that doesn't say much, but shows a lot with his effort and is just one of those guys you have to just like; Steve and Logan Kenseth, good people who came on to the team this year and just fit right in; Josh Williams, talk about hard workin' and another good driver to boot. There are so many who have helped many times, or just once, and are greatly appreciated.

The 51 guys (from my other company), Twist (he's not a bad tractor-racer), Buckley and Elgin, have shown enjoyment in our efforts and take care of us whole-heartedly and I appreciate that! Dale is leaving us, but his designs will carry on forever. We had another guy; we miss the friend he once was to our family, but he has gone another direction in his life, void of us and it's something that I guess I have to understand, although it is difficult.

Even folks like Bruce Silver (Racing Electronics), John Litzinger (Pro Challenge Series) and Tom Mayberry (PASS) have become like cousins. Plus, their families are great. And again, it's tough to mix business and pleasure, but they all are people I have shared emotion, from laughs to anger, with and I am better because of it. I have also learned from those guys. I have a short list of people whom I call friends, and they are certainly in that family.

I also learned a bunch from two grassroots racers; Rusty Drye and Chris James. Rusty and I butt heads all the time. We have different views on things, especially when we are on the track together, but he has a good heart and he reminded me, at a time that I needed it, about the basics in racing and life. Chris James is one of my heroes. He was always a good guy, who worked hard on his street stock, but he lost his legs in a non-racing accident a couple years ago. With an unbelievable attitude he fought back, returned to work and the racecar. It's really just a phenomenal story and he is somebody I admire.

I almost forgot, the Fowlers, Mike, Lisa and Kyle. We have been associated with them for such a short time, but it has been enjoyable. Lisa reminds me of some of the other ladies on our team, very caring. And Kyle, let's go get ‘em at Peachstate!

You see, doesn't this sound like a family? And that's my point, or I should say my dad's point, “A Family that Races Together, Stays Together.” It has helped my immediate family though the years. For the others, even though all of us get in arguments from time to time and some will leave in time, our racing family has a strong bond (and that's not because we have a “Bond” as the crew chief for our Super Late Models efforts). That bond is strong and part of our lives. That is what is special and will never be forgotten. Thank you to everyone!

You see dad, you were right after all. It just took me a while to figure it out.