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Rollercoaster Richmond ... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Start - 11th | Competitors - 18| High - 1st | Low - 11th | Finish - 5th | analyzer report

Bittersweet is the premise for the week. The chase is over and unofficially we're in. It's been a long struggle and the position comes at a price. Our teammate Dan Bailey just missed the cut. To rub salt into the wound, contact in the late stages again from the AMSOIL mount caused hardship for the CyberZine Pontiac driver. Ask anyone in the garage area about Dan's disposition and they'll tell you he's one heck of a guy. Just as everyone was pulling for Mark Martin, so would they cheer for Dan Bailey. Unfortunately our reality didn't play out like Mark Martins.

This Richmond race was an unusual mix. A steady green flag run was followed by several stop and go sessions and a sprint to the finish after contact between the leaders. For the AMSOIL team a solid run diminished from the middle stages on and only by the luck of grace was a top five in the billing.

Kevin slipped on both laps in qualifying. Maybe he was just trying to get too much out of it, who knows but 11th place was not the result desired in qualifying. The start of the race however was a much better story. Kevin surged in the low line in the early stages and drove his way to the lead by lap forty-eight. Running fast times and holding tire wear at bay, it was a surprise that when the pit call was made the ECI Express slipped from second to eighth. Having whet his appetite on the first run, Kevin cautiously hustled the car until the second caution waved on lap one hundred. Ducking in with everyone else, he held his eighth place slot for the restart. It wouldn't last for long.

Jim Allen bounced off the wall when exiting turn two and clipped the red, white, and blue Chevy sending it head on into the inside wall. Locking down the tires to soften the blow. Kevin suffered severely flat spotted fronts and limped around hoping for the caution. That caution would come on lap 150 and just in the nick of time. Ducking in for fresh rubber, he did what he could to gain slots slowly but surely to the finish. Running eighth with less then ten to go, he chose the right line when several of the leaders got together in turn one and emerged fifth in the dash for the final yellow.

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

"Well it seems we made the chase but it feels bad to leave our teammate behind. Dan's been coming on lately and I'm sure there's a win in the future for both of our teams. We had a pretty good mount under us this week and if the circumstances would have been a tick different, we might have had something for 'em. I guess I over drove it in qualifying. It broke loose in turn four on the first lap and that ruined the momentum for the second lap. Pretty discouraging as we really might have had a shot at the pole. We'll go for it again next week at Loudon.

The early race was enjoyable. We found a good line here after winning the truck race earlier in the week and it translated well to the Cup car. We were fast had had a solid run going. I guess we slipped a bit by waiting to pit so long but we didn't want to get caught behind by a caution.

It's a shame Jim Allen got into us there in the middle. It really messed up our ability to advance. The crew chief told me he bounced off the wall and into us. As usual, our luck carries forth week to week. Then I did the bonehead thing and bounced off of Dan. I had a good run on him but misjudged and didn't give enough room. He's probably had enough of me by now and I'm running out of things to say.

We backed our way into a top five this week. In the grand scheme of things, we'll take it. Week after week we're on the other end of the stick so if we luck into a couple of more positions well all the better. We head to Loundon next week. We were fast there in the spring but getting caught up in someone else's mess prevented us from showing our wares. Hopefully we can put the program together from end to end and get a win to start off the Chase for the Championship.

Until next week... "