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Loose at Loudon ... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Start - 4th* | Competitors - 20| High - 1st | Low - 15th | Finish - 7th | analyzer report

Loose, loose, loose was the call up and down pit road. Cool temperatures prevailed as the NASS Lightning contingent rolled into Loudon New Hampshire for the second and final visit of the year. The Chase for the Championship contenders were ready for round one of what promises to be a knock down, drag out fight to the finish at Homestead Miami Speedway in November.

The AMSOIL Chevy was in the hunt for much of the race. NASSCAR penalized the NJ drivers for cutting into pit road on his second qualifying lap. Kevin got loose and aborted the run and then decided to duck on to pit road and call and end to qualifying. NASSCAR didn't like the excessive speed at which he came off the racing surface and penalized the driver by making him start scratch on the field.

Methodically and with a surgeons precision, Kevin weaved his way to the front and negated the deficit from the infraction to lead the race by lap fifty. Having garnered five bonus points for leading a lap, the team pitted for tires and set sail for the finish. All went well until the last quarter of the race. Several drivers had spun their mounts and caution after caution caused even worse conditions as the fat racing slicks didn't have enough time to heat up and develop optimum traction. The AMSOIL Chevy was loose in, tight in the center, and loose off. Kevin was doing his best to keep it between the fences but one slip would mean the difference between a win and a miserable finish.

With ten to go, Kevin was in second and lurking for the win. In an instant the car broke loose under acceleration and when he turned into the slide David Gray's car was on the outside. David's Pepsi Chevy hooked the right rear quarter panel and turned both cars sideways with the field bearing down. Every car from second on back piled in and only the leader got away scott free. Cars were flipping and grinding along the front stretch barriers in what will undoubtedly be one of the most dramatic events in the race for the chase. When the carnage was done, the AMSOIL Chevy was sitting backwards on the front stretch with severe damage to the hood and rear fascia.

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Loose at Loudon ... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Kevin actually rolled across the line in third position but with a restart lingering his hopes for a win were certainly over. As expected, the car was not up to speed on the restart and Kevin limped around for the final couple of laps but salvaged a seventh place finish.

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

"To be frank, right now I'm just plain embarrassed. I'm not sure why I feel like such a heel as I saw driver after driver spin out tonight. I guess the rub is that most of those were single car incidents and mine took out almost half the field.

I played it cool all night long and, well, I guess I'm a bit to hungry for a win. Coming into this race, I knew we had a good shot at it and I was in the best position all year to break into the winner circle. I ran conservative after the second to last restart and that allowed David Gray to get a run on me. He was pressuring me on the backstretch and I ran really hard into three and four. All you need to do was get your tires out of the groove a smidgen and that's what I did. I drifted ever so slightly up out of the groove, got loose and then hung on. I almost had the car saved but it snapped around on me and that was all she wrote. It's a shame because we did have a real good car on long runs but we never got one of those tonight.

We're in a bind because in two weeks we don't have a ride for Talladega. Real life is going to find us in California on work related business and I'm doing all I can to find some way to race. If we miss Tally, we'll we're pretty much out of the chase. Hopefully something will work out.

We head to Dover this week. Incidental contact in the spring prevented us from getting in a good showing so we don't have a clue as to how we'll be. We'll get in some testing and do the best we can.

Until next week... "