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Mighty Martinsville... | More >> | Recap Archives: 2005 | 2004 | 2003

Start - 11th | Competitors - 24| High - 5th | Low - 21st | Finish - 5th | analyzer report
Race Report - April 12th, 2005

For the first time in many, many years, the NASS Lightning core of drivers headed from one short track to another. Pulling out of Bristol Tennessee, the hauler drivers headed just up the road a piece to the Martinsville speedway. While the two tracks have the 1/2 mile distance in common, all comparisons stop there as Martinsville is the polar opposite of the high banked mecca that is Thunder Valley. Short track action is short track action no matter what the venue and everyone saddled up for 200 laps of beating-and-banging Martinsville style.

The AMSOIL Chevy was quick in practice but one slip in qualifying negated any chance of an up front finish. Much like last week, a slip off turn four in the first qualifying lap ruined any chance of reconciliation on lap two. Lap one was good enough for eleventh on the grid which was just north of the half way point in the field.

Kevin had a solid run going in the early stages and worked his way up to fifth around the fifty lap mark. Pitting for fresh tires and hoping to gain as much track position on pit road, Kevin was a bit too aggressive and received a speeding penalty for too fast on pit road. The penalty for the infraction is starting at the longest line and that's a hard pill to swallow when track position is so hard to come by.

Little by little Kevin held his ground. The race wasn't without incident as he broke loose one time just after the mid point of the race and spun to the inside retaining wall. The crew made quick work of the damage and returned the ECI Express to the track for further battle.

Good track position helped in the end and a couple of well place passes brought the AMSOIL Chevy to fifth place by the end of the festivities.

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Mighty Martinsville ... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive

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

"Well I'm glad that's over with. It's nerve wracking to finish the race with a green, white checkered. Once again the breaks went our way tonight and we fought hard and got another top five for the season. We bumped and banged with a couple of competitors tonight and I hope that everyone realizes it was just hard nosed short track racing.

I got caught speeding on pit road early on, at least that's what NASS had to say. If I did it must have been just a blip over 'cause I didn't see it that way. I guess they got this electronic timing and all now so we gotta go with what they tell us. Martinsville is such a hard track to pass on and I figured once we went all the way to the back - well we were done for.

I settled in, rode hard when I had to and we called the pit road visits just right. I'm thinking now that had we pitted just one less time, we might have had the lead to defend to the finish but man those guys up front were hustling and I don't know if I coulda held them off. Most likely I'd been wrecked trying to hold them back there.

Hats off to Bart Hoyle. I think that might have been his first win in NASS. He's been around a long time and he earned that win for sure. Congrats to that bunch.

We'll load up the AMSOIL, Eastern Outerwear Chevy and head on over to Texas next week. I think by now my Quad-Oval notions are well known but we'll go there and give it all we've got.

Until next week... "