11th
Blog for August 5
Tuesday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was the ninth week of competition in the Summer Shootout Series. I have been struggling on the 1/4 mile tracks all year but have been running good on the 3/8 mile tracks. Ironically complete opposites from the previous year. Well I drew good at Charlotte with a 95 out or 400 pill draw. That started me outside pole in the second heat race so once again I was pumped up about the race and was trying to be positive about my car again this week. Well the heat race started and I dropped like a rock once again. I ended up finishing my heat race in eleventh place and the car was pushing awefully. I came in and made a big adjustment on the car and was sure it would loosen the car up enough so I could actually race it, but only time would tell. My eleventh place finish in the heat race had me starting 22nd in the feature race and I was poised to march my way to the front. Well the race started and the car was a little better, but nowhere it needed to be to run up front. I was hanging on the the back of the field and making up positions through attrition where others had wrecked. But a big pre-race mistake was made by myself and I am very lucky I wasn’t seriously hurt or that the car didn’t get torn up. After a late caution I was pacing around the track in third gear and just before coming to the green flag I dropped down to second gear. Well we came to the green and I couldn’t get my car to pull into third gear. I was completely confused as to what happened. The car would downshift but it wouldn’t upshift. So as my car slowly rolled around the track in first gear I pushed the clutch in on the start finish line and let it roll into the infield for the remaining two laps of the race. I came in and got out of the car to look around and see what the problem might be. Uncle Bill came over and started tinkering with the car too and as we pulled on the gear shifter we noticed the whole entire engine moving up and down. Come to find out the two motor mount bolts that bolt DOWN into the motor backed out a good ways. I take full responsibility for what happened but I still couldn’t believe that of all of the motor mount bolts that came out it was those two. I am truely baffled by what has happened in the last year to me on these 1/4 mile tracks. Uncle Bill has told me it is the track change but I just can’t seem to get a grip on the track no matter what I try to run. It is really frustrating because I know I am better than my runs and finishes are showing. I just have to find the right setup and go from there.
