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Dumped in Daytona... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Start - 10th | Competitors - 21| High - 1st | Low - 16th | Finish - 13th | analyzer report

It's something special when you can attend a race on Saturday and run the track virtually on Tuesday. That's what happened this week as we took in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. It gives you sort of a psychological advantage, a leg up on the competition so to speak when you carry that vibe into the event. The speed of the real cars is something to behold and a large field showed up for our July joust at the 2.5 mile tri-oval.

Settling in for a tenth place starting spot, Kevin decided to be a bit more aggressive this time out after a review of the February race. Too much was left on the table earlier this year and patient aggressiveness was in order, at least that was the plan. On the start the low line got the advantage and Kevin slipped to to a fifteenth place slot from his tenth place slot on the grid. The action was frenzied at the beginning and it only took ten laps for trouble. Contact occurred on the front stretch and in an amazing feat of driving, Kevin weaved left, then right, then left again. Other competitors machines were twisting and turning all the while. When he emerged from the smoke, there were four or five cars in the wall or on the grass in the tri-oval.

Teammate Dan Bailey held out and led a lap eleven and Kevin pitted with the one to go; echoing the strategy of his teammate (Both wanted to be able to go the same distance on a fuel run). The caution waived again only after a few laps when Dan and Randy Mitchell made contact. The AMSOIL Chevy got into the spinning Dodge of NicK Boyd but came away unscathed. It was Kevin's turn to hang out and gain the bonus points. A strange event took place during the pitstops. While Kevin was circling the track, an apparently disgruntled Randy Mitchell rammed into Dan Bailey and Nick Boyd while they were pitting. Both cars suffered extensive damage and Randy disconnected immediately. Not something you see too often and it shows that sometimes the passion of sim-racing is as real as anything else.

Kevin restarted in tenth and was poised to run to the finish, sans a teammate. Of course, it wouldn't be right the way this season has gone if the red, white, and blue Chevy didn't find itself on the receiving end of contact from another drivers mount. Lap 33 it happened.

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Dumped at Daytona... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive

While running the high line through three and four, driver Jeff Maddox wrestled with his Chik-Fil-A Chevy and lost that battle off turn four. Sliding across the track he careened off the wall and into the right rear corner of the AMSOIL Chevy which was hugging the yellow line on the inside. The right rear tire of the AMSOIL chassis rode over the front bumper of the Maddox ride and immediately went airborne into the outside wall. Severe damage was incurred and as usual, the team had to receive the car on pit road with heavy damage. The impact was so severe that the roof was creased along the front ridge. The motor was not up to full strength after the hit and once again the driver had to soldier on to a lucky thirteenth finish.

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

I sure wanted a good run tonight. I just can't believe the season thus far. I think we're running at least somewhere near fifty percent of the races where we've been clipped by someone else and damaged. I think we should switch and run for Target this year. At least the bulls-eye would be an appropriate moniker. Once again, just biding time. The race didn't even have a chance to develop and bam, we're damaged again. I'll be honest, I didn't even know what happened. I was so low on the track that I had no idea who was up there and that we even made contact. I felt the car snap sideways and go airborne. I didn't find out until many laps later what had happened.

We dodged a huge one earlier. I screamed out loud when I emerged from the smoke. I was sure that we had dodged the bullet and were going to get a great run in. I was up on the wheel and psyched to go the the finish but instead I ran around at 2/3rds speed and tried to stay out of the way by running the apron.

On another note, how bout that deal with Dan and Randy. I've seen a lot of things while racing online but hearing about that one floored me. I was on the track and missed it luckily or I might have been caught up in it too. I'm sure that the officials of NASSCAR will do the right thing and hand out appropriate penalties if warranted.

We head to Chicagoland. I won't say it. We'll see you next week... "