WEEKEND REFLECTIONS: RACE RECAP

The race Saturday was almost not going to happen. It rained most of the day causing practice and qualifying to be rained out. At 7pm we lined up by championship points for heat races and I was in the 2nd row inside.

In my heat race I got a good start, and off of turn 2 I was in command of 2nd place, Naima Lang, who won the main was in first. My car was super good and even though Naima was a couple tenths faster we were right there, finishing 2nd.

When I came back to the pit the guys asked me, "What will it take to beat Naima?" My answer, "The car is tight in the center, I've got to get to the throttle quicker." They went to work.

We came out of the main event and I started 2nd row inside again. I missed a shift on the start and was back a little going into turn one. The car was not as good as in the heat race, but after 2 or 3 laps I got to 2nd place.

Going into turn one after a restart for caution the car slid up the track in turn 1 and 2. I've had such a great car I thought something was amiss. Coming off of turn 2 the 48 got to my bumper and by the looks of the video and my right rear bumper he was leaning on me. The car was unstable down the back stretch. I went into three and it slid up the track again. I was convinced I had a flat.

I pulled off and headed toward the pit, but when I got there no tires were flat. I went back out and finished 13th, 7 laps down. The car was decent, but not as good as the heat race.

Here is what I learned. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FLAT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE TRACK! I was pretty disappointed in myself. Being beat because you are not as good as the other guy is one thing; being beat by yourself is another!

We did our post race reflection with crew and determined the changes we made to the chassis between the heat race and the main were not the right ones. We will put those back and try some other stuff. All in all, it was a good day, I would have liked to practice a bit, but we had fun. We will get 'em next week!

C0ngrats to Naima and Jill Lang for both of their wins on Saturday. Melinda and I have gotten to know Naima and Jill a bit in recent months and they are a great couple.