There's a famous quote once said by Sylvester Stallone in Rocky that goes "It ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done."
The 2019 season up to this point has not been the kindest to us. If it wasn't for bad luck we wouldn't have any at all. The car shows speed in practice every single race we've been to so far, but that speed and success hasn't been able to translate much into our features, and when it does, we usually have nowhere to go on the track.
This week, we unloaded the car with the same old setup that we've came out of the trailer with, and were inside the top 5 in speed right off the bat. We scuffed a new set of right side tires in the end of the practice and parked it. The second practice came, and we wanted to find a little more speed for the car, being that it was the biggest night of the whole year on top of Quarry Hill. Looking back at it now, we should have left it right where it was, because the car went from good to bad in the blink of an eye. We tried getting it back to where it was by the end of practice, but 15 minutes only allows you to do so much, and by the end it was drivable again.
We started 5th in the heat race, with the first 4 spots being a qualifying position. The green flag dropped and the car immediately went backwards behind a slower car that started on the pole, and eventually pulled off the track, but by then there was no time left to make it back up through the field. This put us 5th again for the consi, and once again, we got stuck behind a slower car and fought our way back around to grab the last qualifying spot in the feature.
We made a tire change after the consi race to try and get the car to rotate again, and started 10th place on the outside lane in the feature. During pace laps before the green flag dropped, I could tell the car was already going to be tight, regardless of what we had done with our tires from the consi to the feature. For the first time this year, the race went flag to flag, and we just couldn't manage to get the car to go forward. with 10 laps left in the race, the car finally started to come into it and pick up speed, but it was once again too late, and we had to salvage a 16th place finish.
The night wasn't bad though, because Mid Season Championship Night also meant it was Autograph Night. The poor finish in the feature was forgotten about for a short amount of time with the overflow of support from fans and friends who came to me for autographs. Its in tough times that it's always important to remember that no matter what the finish, there's always going to be people that support you still.
All in all, it wasn't the night we wanted nor needed, but the car is in one piece, and there's still the second half of the season to make up any ground we've lost up to this point. The team will plug away at the car all week and try to find the speed we so desperately need, and hopefully manage to give the fans and people that support us the finish they deserve.
Next race is Thursday Night, post time 7pm at the "Nations Site of Excitement." Depending on how the night goes, we may even make a special trip over to WMMP to get some more speed over there for the final Triple Crown race.
Stay tuned to the facebook page for the decision on that.
We hope to see you all at the next race!
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