26th
Cordele
The melon was a hot one. Starting off the day with an hour and a half of practice went really well. I was really happy with the improvements my crew and I made to the car. I felt like we could have made it a little better with some more practice but that’s hard to do with only an hour and half of practice. Preparing for qualifying I had a mind set not to over drive the car and put a good smooth mistake free lap down. With that mind set I qualified 3rd. With a quick autograph session it was time to race. The pole sitter rolled a 6 so I started 4th. About 15 laps into the race I jumped out to a fair lead. About half way I started getting pressure from behind by Chase. Chase several times looked to the inside but couldnt pull the pass off. I couldn’t roll through the center as good as he could so I moved to the top grove to keep my momentum built up. I held him off for awhile until a late caution between lap 70 and 80. I didn’t want to see this caution cause we have to go double file on restarts which put Chase on the outside. the top groove was better as Chase took the lead. From lap 80 to 100 it seemed like caution after caution as Chase and i took turns at leading. It was lap 97 I pulled around Chase on the restart which was huge. I knew this would be my only chance at the win. But it didn’t last long with the caution coming out in turn three on that same lap. Now I was on the inside Chase on the outside. Chase and I were battling hard for the win. On the restart there was 2 laps left. I got a fair restart and stayed with Chase through 1 and 2. Going into three chase was about a half of a car length ahead. We were real close together side by side and we hit tire to tire and sent both of us spinning. I was hit in the driver side door but it was just minor damage, no suspension which allowed me to finish 4th. Chase wasn’t hit at all and was put back to the lead on the restart and went on to win. I want to thank Bill Eliott for giving the opportunity to race and my crew that never gives up no matter what happens. I want to thank mom and dad and my sponsors Hometown Community Bank, Its better in brasleton, and Jeff Haynie.
