Rapid at the Rock...

Start - 8th | Competitors - 12| High - 1st| Low - 12th | Finish - 5th

The final fall race at the Rockingham North Carolina facility was nothing more than amazing. A late race caution for a spin (By the ASMOIL Pontiac) made for a five car shoot out to the end.

Twelve competitors took to the track on what would be the last autumn appearance for this fall classic at the Rockingham Speedway. The AMSOIL team struggled in happy hour but after running the Thunder race (NASSCAR's equivalent of the Busch series) the night before, Inglin felt confident that a good showing could be possible.

The early laps were uneventful but an early race move to miss a spinning car caused Inglin to clip the apron in turn four and slide through the grass on the frontstretch. Inglin was able to keep the car between the fences but was more than a half track back from the lead pack. A timely caution negated the deficit and Inglin found himself at the tail end of the pack once again.

Choosing to lead a lap, Kevin stayed out two laps to pick up the bonus points but had to play catch-up as he didn't get to the back of the field before the restart occurred. Finding a comfortable line and settling in, Inglin raced his way through the field and made up a huge deficit. Once again the caution flew with 30 to go. The ECI Express was sitting pretty in fifth place. A good restart resulted in a surge to third place and it was a nose to tail battle for twenty laps as the top three ran under a blanket.

Unfortunately for Inglin, luck was about to run out. Taking the high side around a lapped car entering turn one, the dreaded WARP caused the AMSOIL Pontiac to be drilled in the left rear quarter panel and resulted in a spin and heavy rear damage. Inglin still held on after the spin but with the rear spoiler damaged he was never a threat for a position higher then fifth.

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Rockingham continued.

Kevin Inglin - "That wasn't a bad result considering how bad the car was at the start of the race. We pretty much missed the practice session as we hopped into the race just minutes before the start. Everyone was running in the low 24 second bracket in practice and we were running in the 25s!

We found trouble early and I thought it was going to be a long night. If that early race green flag stretch would have continued, we would have lost a lap. I slid the tires pretty good avoiding a spinning Jim O'Dell. After that we were at a disadvantage because we weren't with the tail end of the field on the restart but we sure gained a bunch of ground on that segment of the race.

Another timely caution allowed us to get some track position and I still wasn't that fast but our tire wear was excellent and we were competitive. I hung in there and at the 3/4 mark of the race we hit on a groove that the car liked and it took off. One more caution and restart resulted in a bobble by the third place driver at the time; that allowed us to snag third and run the last segment right with the leaders. With about ten to go, they had opened a car length or two but we had some good tire wear and I think we'd a been right with 'em at the end. Wasn't to be however as we had contact while lapping the BudIce car with ten to go.

As bad as the car was at the beginning, I'm pleased with a fifth. We finished third last night at the Thunder race and we woulda had at leaset a third out of it tonight if we didn't get mixed up with the Adkins. Can't worry about that now; you just gotta take what's delt to ya.

The crew did an excellent job this week and we're excited about going to Homestead. We've run well there in the past and hope that we can continue the top five finishes like we'd been doin'. Who knows, we might just sneak in another win before the seasons out."

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