Instatiable, Incredible, Indy...

Start - 6th | Competitors - 20 | High - 1st | Low - 15th | Finish - 9th

There is no place with the historic punch of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Its hollowed grounds are sacred to anyone who has ever sat behind the wheel of a race car. This past week the NASS Lightning contingent rumbled into the Brickyard for the annual August visit.

Racing Indy in Nascar 2003 is a challenge at best. The setup provided for us this past week was just a tad loose in the beginning but tended to push a bit going in and off of the turns. In layman's terms what this means is the car slid enough on the pavement to wear out the tires, and quickly. The entire race was a balance of running fast enough to stay with the pack but slow enough to have tires until the end.

The AMSOIL Pontiac lined up sixth on the grid for the start of the event. It was a solid starting place with a field of twenty drivers. At the drop of the green flag, Kevin settled for a seventh place slot as he had to yield the inside line going into turn one. There was an early caution on lap six but all of the front runners decided to stay on track and maintain their track position. Everyone held their line and kept pace until the second caution at lap 16. Most of the field seized the opportunity to pit under caution but the team decided to stay out for a couple of laps and pick up five bonus points for leading. This strategy was costly as it dropped the team to fifteenth in the overall standings at a track that is notoriously hard to pass. The ECI Enterprises team was gambling on one more caution somewhere in the event but it didn't happen until it was too late to take advantage of it. A fifty-five lap green flag run ensued and Kevin climbed his way to ninth place in the standings. This segment included a green flag pitstop where the team elected on taking just two right side tires in order to get some track position. The car had some damage from contact with the turn two wall and the team just didn't get that needed caution period to fix the damage.

Click Here For More

 

Indianapolis continued.

Ever so slightly off the pace, Kevin soldiered along until the late stages of the race hoping for that a caution to fall and an opportunity to fix the car to a competitive level. It happened too late and unfortunately Kevin was involved. With six to go, the car clipped a piece of SAFER barrier that juts out of the wall at turn three. Ricocheting off the wall, Kevin slid into Rick Simpson who was on the underside making a pass. The result was both cars spinning into the inside barrier and then sliding across the track into oncoming traffic. Both cars came to rest in the middle of three and four and Simpson's car was struck by another competitor. Both were able to pull away from the scene and limped along until the yellow and checker were waved over the field.

Kevin Inglin - "Overall it wasn't a bad night for the team. The car wasn't that great on long runs as it seems I just couldn't keep the tires under it as well as some of those front runners. When we dropped off that lead pack during that long green flag stretch, it lost us the draft and kept us chasing the car for the rest of the night. All-in-all, it wasn't a terrible night for us and I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the guys back at the shop for all they do for us week in and week out. We're in the middle of a 20 run stretch and many of them are working seven days a week and don't get to see much of their families. Indy is certainly a big race for us and they gave me a good piece here. <GRIN>

Next week the Lightning division is going to the Glen. The team has decided to bring in a road course ringer after my dismal performance earlier this year at Sonoma. I plan on making the trip out to the Watkins Glen to support the team and look forward to being back behind the wheel at Michigan."

(Actually Kev's going on vacation to the Jersey shore!)

Click Here to return to the beginning of the race report.