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Texas Turmoil... | More >> | Recap Archives: 2005 | 2004 | 2003

Start - 7th | Competitors - 15| High - 1st | Low - 13th | Finish - 6th | analyzer report
Race Report - November 8th, 2005 - Race 34 of 36

While in shape Atlanta and Texas look the same, they are clearly two distinct race tracks. Last week the Atlanta approach was conserve tires. This week the energy was still somewhat on tire wear but it is more important to get up front and run with the lead draft or you'll be left behind.

The AMSOIL Chevy started off in seventh and stayed in the lead draft holding on through the first quarter of the run. Several drivers went off quickly in the beginning while Kevin paced himself and then surged forward on lap fifteen. As tires fell off several of the front runners decided short pitting was the way to race and ducked in at the one third mark. The race required at least two pitstops and short pitting is the best way to get the most of your tires on each run. Kevin had been rolling through the turns and saving tires and with the risk of being caught a lap down if the caution waived, the AMSOIL team opted leave Kevin out and let him run the full fuel run. The upside was Kevin led thirteen laps but with every upside is a downside. The downside was that no caution waived and after pitting, Kevin returned to the track in tenth place and had a big hole to dig out of.

Dig he did... Kevin, having some fresh tires, ran quickly in the second segment and pulled his way up to the top five at the ninety lap mark. The leaders were due to pit around lap ninety and the crew decided that the race had a green flag look to it so they called the ECI Express into the pits for one more stop. Kevin lost only one position in the exchange and found himself in sixth for the remaining segment. One driver, Miles Hammrick, was attempting to run the race on one pitstop and probably would not have made the distance but late race contact between himself and potential winner Scott Olson drew the caution and he was able to stretch his fuel to the end and keep a top five finish. At the end of the night the AMSOIL, Eastern Outerwear Chevy was sixth in the rundown.

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

"This ended up as a strategy race and we didn't have the best strategy. We took the low risk route by running the distance on that first fuel run and it cost us in the final rundown. That's not to say that it was a bad call. Every time we've short pitted this year we've been caught by a caution so we've been playing it conservative. If a caution would have come out we would have looked like heroes.

The car felt good tonight and we were competitive. Our notes told us to get in the front group and hang on as long as we could. I got up to third and the car was real comfortable. In the beginning I was trying to force the line and slipped back a bit. Once I felt the car slipping back I relaxed a bit and my line improved when I became comfortable.

We're off to Phoenix next week. We ran real well there last year and might have had a shot at the win if the driver didn't slip up. I'll go in with hopes of a good finish and we'll take what we can get from it...

Until next week... "