The week of Richmond was very busy in the shop.  Along with the Richmond cars, we had to prepare two cars for a test at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte.  I am actually sitting in the tower high above the front straight here in Charlotte peaking over my computer screen to see when Juan will be coming out for the next run. Richmond was a bit of disappointment, but you have to keep an open mind when you are short track racing.  Anything can happen!  After a very strong qualifying effort it was looking like it was going to be a good night.

We fell back a little bit during the first stages of the race but we were still in pretty good shape. After one of the stops we seemed to have one of the stronger cars in traffic.  Juan was one of the few guys that could do some passing and I was quite impressed with that particular run.  After another caution, we pitted with a couple of minor changes and I mentioned to Juan that the last run was really good, but there was still a long way to go.  A couple of laps after the restart while coming out of turn two, the car got a little loose and Juan spun with slight contact to the outside wall.  The car was not severely damaged at all, but we were now stuck in the back of terrible traffic where it is so difficult to pass. 

After running there a while and making up a bit of ground, the 10 car had some trouble and spun in front of the field.  The only words that I could get out of my mouth were “Check up!”  It was a huge pile-up and we were right in the middle of it.  Juan did some very quick thinking. When he realized that we were going to wreck, he spun the car backwards and hit them with the back of the car, which is way easier to fix than the front! Even though we wrecked and had a lot of damage, there was no suspension damage.  The guys replaced the deck-lid, wing and other minor repairs and only lost around 20 laps!  I think that is amazing!  By going back out on the track and running the rest of the race we made up around seven positions.  It was truly an eventful night with a lot of action.  Even though we fell out of the top 12 in points, everyone showed that they would not give up and fought to the end. 

Night is beginning to fall on the test session here in Charlotte and the lights are coming on.  We are here testing for the All-Star race as well as the 600.  This track is so sensitive to temperature, as the sun goes down and the track cools off you can actually see the cars going faster!  It is off to Darlington this weekend for another Saturday night race with a newly paved track surface.  It should be a good one to watch.  This is the track that the groove is right next to the wall all the way around, it is awesome!  Have a good week and I will talk to you after Darlington!

Tab