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Comeback at Kansas ... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Start - 12th | Competitors - 20| High - 1st | Low - 14th | Finish - 5th | analyzer report

Dorothy wanted to leave Kansas and she accomplished her goal through one of mother nature's miracles; the twister. Fast forward to Kansas City Kansas and there was a different kind of twister in action. The spinning, gyrating AMSOIL Chevy of Kevin Inglin. Not once but twice did the red white and blue colors blur into a swirl of tire smoke and crunching metal. So it was all bad right? Wrong. The fire was lit and a late race surge propelled the driver to dig deep and motor to a top five.

After less then a dozen laps in happy hour the AMSOIL driver took to the speedway for qualifying. Pulling down a conservative twelfth, Kevin settled in and decided to take a wait-and-see approach to the race. No time for practice meant the feel of the car would have to come during the race. Sliding two positions at the start, Kevin hung in early and got comfortable with the setup. Conserving tires and racing for consistency, Kevin started his first surge to the front. Gaining a spot approximately every two laps, Kevin found himself in tenth place by lap twenty-five. It was at this stage that different strategies started to play out. Several of the front runners took a short-pit approach to the race. Figuring fresh tires and increased speeds were the way to go, all of the front runners ducked in between lap twenty and thirty-one. The AMSOIL bunch knew that they were getting good tire wear and decided to run the car through the full fuel run. Going almost ten laps more than many of the other competitors, the crew chief figured that fewer pitstops would add up to a top finish when the finally tally was scored.

The crew chief finally pulled the AMSOIL Chevy to pit road on lap thirty-five. Dropping to fourteenth once again, Kevin held pace and was leading by lap sixty-three. Much of the competition had made their second pitstop and one driver, Norman Adkins, was coming fast on new tires. On the entry of turn three, Norman got in much faster than Kevin and nicked the back end of the car in a part of the turn where the car is the most unsettled. The traction broke loose and a long slide ensued. Unfortunately the next competitor on the scene was Miles Hammrick and he couldn't avoid the very loose ECI Express. The resultant tap finished the job and Kevin went spinning down the front straight. Caution was out and the first twister of the night was over along with the strategy. The complexion of the race would change drastically after that first caution.

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Comeback at Kansas ... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Nine cautions were to follow but it was the one on lap 105 that would have the most impact. Running third with fifteen to go, Brett Molzahn tried to capitalize on a run down the front stretch by ducking under Kevin at the start finish line. Kevin at the same time was hugging the bottom groove and contact was made. The crew watched in horror as the car spun wildly into the concrete barrier in turn one. The twister phenomenon had struck again.

Pitting to fix the damage, Kevin returned to the track in thirteenth position with only ten to go. Taking advantage of fresh tires and a charged up disposition, the AMSOIL driver was running sixth when the yellow flew for the last time on lap 116. The field took the green flag with only one lap to go and running a low line off turn two paid off as Dan Bailey and Jeff Mahan battled up high and Kevin got a run on the bottom. Kevin bested his teammate for the fifth position off the final turn when he was held up by Mahan.

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

"What a crazy race. To be frank, I was pretty fired up. During the course of the race we were hit from behind twice and had to dig out of a hole. When Norm got into me it seemed like just a case of two different speeds as he just barely nicked me. When Brett got me on the front stretch, well that tweaked me a bit. The first three positions were tight and I was conserving tires for the finish. Brett got a run on us off turn four and next thing I knew he was on the apron under me. I guess he ran out of patience or made a bad choice which is not like him. I was protecting the lower groove and maintaing position when the contact was made. To me it seemed as if he just plain ran over us. I'm going to have to go back and look at the replay to see if that's what happened. The decent finish softened the blow a bit and we'll move on.

I struggled with lapped cars all night and maybe on the last run it might have been an advantage to be behind them. The lead cars had to stay high on the restart with lapped cars under them and we dig down low. It paid off with a top five finish. Who would have guessed. We head
to Lowes this week and anything can happen. We'll do our best
and maybe if we click our heels and wish hard enough
we'll come away with a decent finish.

Until next week... "