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Marginal at Martinsville ... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Start - 19th | Competitors - 24| High - 1st | Low - 21st | Finish - 16th

Sometimes strategy is key to getting results in racing. Such was meant to be the case in this springs Martinsville run. The car felt good and instead of charging from the back which is common form for the ECI team, this week we decided to ride our way to the front and then hang on for a win or the best finish we could muster. As they say however, sometimes good plans go astray.

The AMSOIL Chevy started 19th on the grid after limited track time and a late setup change. The crew just couldn't get any speed out of the car but it drove well and Kevin soldiered on. The early race segment saw the ECI express conservatively make its way into the top ten. Lap 58 proved detrimental however as Jeff Maddox came into turn three a bit hot and sent the red, white, and blue Chevy spinning hard into the third turn concrete. The crew did what it could to fix the damage but didn't mind the location of the pace car and lost a lap in the process. Kevin shrugged off the setback and raced his way back to the lead lap on a caution that soon followed the restart of the race.

This situation actually played into the strategy as Kevin took on fresh tires and was poised to conserve and try to run to the finish with no more stops. On lap 80 the team sent Kevin out with his final set of tires. The rest of the pack pitted during a yellow flag session on lap 100 and Kevin assumed the lead with tires that were still relatively fresh and ready to go.

The crew chief warned Kevin to go easy on the tires and he did just that; leading for over fifty laps in the middle segment of the race. On lap 160 a little slip let the 41 Pepsi Chevy of David Gray sneak underneath but Kevin didn't give up and ran David hard for the next two laps to see if he could resume the top spot. Unfortunately the run at the front was about to come to an end as eventual winner Brett Molzahn's Chevy got into the back of the AMSOIL mount in turn one which resulted in a hard hit, this time to the turn one concrete.

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Marginal at Martinsville ... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Kevin pitted to fix the car but with the loss of track position, it was all but impossible to gain any ground. He soldiered on for a disappointing 16th place finish.

Kevin Inglin, the pilot of the AMSOIL Chevy had this to say after the run:

"I'm sick about the way it turned out. To lead a large segment of the race and have it go away like that, well that's a difficult pill to swallow. I knew that we weren't going to be the fastest car on the track. We really didn't have much speed this weekend. I'll tell you this though, we weren't in the way. We held our own and were still just riding to the finish. It was hard to pass out there and track position was key. We knew if we could get out front, then we might be able to stay there. There were still a bunch of laps left and we were conserving our tires for the end. I had just commented to the crew chief that one of these guys is going to get antsy an I'll probably end up in the fence before it's over. I shoulda' kept my mouth shut. Martinsville is a tough place to drive and one of the factors of any race is contact because of different breaking points. I know Brett didn't mean it. He was racing for the win and I ain't mad at him - ya know, I was just one of those racin deals...

We traditionally have run well at Martinsville and come away a bit disappointed that we didn't get the finish we were looking for. We've had some solid runs over the last couple of weeks so I guess statistically it was bound to happen. Let's just hope that it's not the beginning of a trend <G>.

I'd like to give a shout out to Poppy Joe tonight. He's recuperating in a Baltimore hospital from quadruple bypass surgery. We're saying our prayers for him and tomorrow morning we're off to Baltimore to pay him a visit.

We might take it the truck race at Thomson if the schedule allows. We'll have to see how things work out. I pulled a muscle under my shoulder blade this week and to be frank I'm pretty sore. Did it sneezing of all things... Anyway, that's all for this week. We'll see you at the track."