By Racin’ Roger
Around the Sprint Cup Garage at IMS
John Carter and company showed up at IMS with Jeremy Mayfield’s equipment and Past Champion Terry Labonte. Tony Furr, former crew chief for Mayfield was on hand as a ‘Consultant’, but it was clear in the garage and on pit road that Furr is really calling the shots. Expected to be a start and park team, Labonte hung in there for the long haul finishing 6 laps off the pace in 33rd . They are not slated to be at Pocono this week.
Larry Gunselman withdrew their entry for the Brickyard with the 64 car. Mike Wallace said in the garage at ORP that he is looking forward to driving for Gunselman at Pocono. Look for Tony Furr to be there to help out with the 64 team.
The rain delays at IMS forced some Nationwide teams to use backup drivers for qualifying. Kyle Busch had already planned to skip the NNS qualifying, but the rain forced Carl Edwards, David Reutimann, Mike Skinner and Matt Kenseth to miss qualifying.
Around the Nationwide Garage at ORP
Shelby Howard, driver of the #70 Foretravel Motorcoach Chevy for ML Racing was celebrating his 25th birthday on Saturday. The celebration was short circuited by an ill handling car. Despite numerous set up changes before qualifying by crew chief Brian Ross, the car remained nearly impossible to turn through the corners. Howard fought the car all night and considering the poor handling, did a fine job finishing 19 only one lap down.
Richard Childress was on hand at ORP to watch not only Stephen Leicht in the 29 car, but also Austin Dillon, his grandson, in the 2 car. In only his fourth NNS race Dillon started 26th and finished 18th, 1 lap off the pace.
Carl Edwards was the star of the night taking his Vitamin Water Ford from a 42nd place start, to win the Kroger 200.
Around the Camping World Truck Garage at ORP
Still a lot of concern around the garage about the 2010 season. Nobody wants to speak ‘on the record’ but many are not optimistic that the series will be around much longer unless NASCAR pulls out a miracle.
Ron Hornaday’s wife and crew chief Rick Ren were more than confused Saturday night, as they watched their truck take the white flag TWICE. Nobody from NASCAR or ORP would comment, but the general consensus is that the race went an extra lap. Fortunately no major incidents happened on that extra lap to change the results.
Albuquerque, new Mexico’s Caitlin Shaw made her NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at ORP. Driving the #1 Red Horse Racing Toyota, she qualified 32 and stayed with the pack most of the race. Although she was off the pace, she managed to stay up to race speed and give the leaders plenty of room. She did finish the race in 24th place.
