W

 

W

 

W

 

Hard Luck at Charlotte... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive

Start - 10th | Competitors - 19| High - 10th | Low - 15th | Finish - 15th | analyzer report

Travel just a short run down Speedway Boulevard off Interstate 85 in Concord North Carolina and you will see in front of you the the Lowe's Motor Speedway. Sure Lowe's might not carry the prestige of Daytona; the historic precedent of Darlington or Indianapolis but just the same its worn an bumpy surface can be likened to a comfortable pair of shoes.

The NASS Lightning drivers rolled into town to compete in the fifth race of the chase to the cup. Some drivers were looking for a change of fortune while others were hoping to extend their fortune. As usual with this season race, the outcomes would be diverse and in the end it would be a non chase contender stealing the spotlight as Brett Molzahn avoided trouble and pulled off a satisfying win.

What happened to the AMSOIL Team you might wonder. Simply it was a short night. The team lined up tenth on the grid, dropped to fourteenth as a result of starting on the outside and then settled in to ride as the race presented as a tire wear night. All was going according to plan, that is until several cars got together on the exit of turn four on lap twenty-five. The ECI Express was in between turns three and four and Kevin saw the trouble ahead, slowed up and made incidental contact upon arriving at the scene of the accident. Unfortunately however another competitor who was in turn three at the time didn't slow up and blasted the back end of the AMSOIL Chevy sending it hard into all of the cars that were collected in the incident.

Nursing a headache and unable to see straight, Kevin cleared the cobwebs and wondered what had hit him. What be came clear as the fog lifted was the smoke and steam emanating from the front quarter of the bashed in front clip. The engine was done and so was the night.

More >>

 

 

 

Hard Luck at Charlotte... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive

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

"I think I have an Excedrin headache. I saw the crash in plenty of time and did a respectable job in slowing up in the time that I had. I glanced off the wall and might have had some incidental damage but I'm sure that I stopped short of hitting anyone in front of me. Just when I let out a sigh of relief, BAM, I got blasted from behind. I had no idea Jeff was coming and I'm not sure what he saw but it seems clear that the spotter didn't let him know to get on the binders. I've been told that he hit us at over 100 miles an hour. Maybe I should upgrade to the Extra-Strength Excedrin. Better yet, I think I'll go grab me a bottle Excedrin Migraine for what awaits tomorrow.

Seriously though, I'm not sure how we would have fared tonight and we didn't even get a chance to show our wears. I'm confident we would have been good on the long runs and I had settled into a good line. The spotter let me know that we running times equivalent to the front pack and I was easing into the turns to save tires. I guess we'll never know what was to come. One thing's for sure however, we're pretty much on the outside looking in as far as the chase is concerned. It's going to take a whole bunch of bad luck for our competitors for us to get back into contention. The way the year has gone, I'm afraid the only ones who've found that category of luck has been us.

We leave here and head to Martinsville. Ole' Marty's been kind to us on occasion so at least we have that to hope for. We've got to hang on to something as I don't think we've been able to capitalize on a decent back to back result all season.

Until next week... "