11th
Blog for August 2
Well I spent the whole week rebuilding my car from the crash at Lanier a few weeks back. So my first race back was to be the same place I have had a few accidents in the past. However I did shake the car down the day before so I could go ahead and work out the hard spots. Race day came around and I was confident in my setup and how the car ran the day before. I didn’t draw very well for the heat race but my car was good and I knew I could finish up front. The heat race wasn’t very interesting. We ran nose to tail for 8 laps and I ended up finishing third in the second heat. With that run I started sixth in the main race with a good car. It was really about a top three car but I was just focused on finishing the race in a respectable position. I ran sixth the whole race right behind the leaders. About eight laps into the race the two cars in front of me got together and it sent the guy on the outside spinning on the high side of the track. That brought out a caution and then it was time to choose position. We can either choose the inside or outside for restarting and that puts the guys in the back back up to the front with us even if they aren’t as good as the leaders. I stayed on the bottom the whole night because when something happens it usually happens up high. I restarted ninth on the last restart and boy was my car hooked up. On the last restart we had two or three to go and I could put my car absolutely anywhere. If I had better track position I feel I could have run in the top three and maybe even competed for the win but I fought for and took what I could get. The last two or three laps I drove from ninth to sixth and was on a charge to the front but I ran out of laps. We came in and I missed tech by one spot but it turned out one of the top five finishers failed inspection and got disqualified and I picked up the fifth position. It was a good run for me and got my confidence back up some but I knew I had a top three car which made me feel even better. I was running conservatively and just wanted to protect my car but still run well. Next week you can be sure the Aaron’s Dream Machine will be competing up front again.
