Wednesday, September 11, 2002
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Wednesday, September 11, 2002 |
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Disappointment in Cedar Rapids for Clanton
Bad news for Clanton in Iowa
Hello race fans! You know when somebody approaches you and says, "Which do you want to hear first? The good news or the bad news?" That's how the weekend was for the Steve Dale Motorsports crew. Unfortunately, we ended the weekend with the bad news. The Camp Fire USA Georgia Council team visited Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa this past week for the running of the American Speed Association (ASA) Iowa 300. Our weekend started just as we had hoped after we captured the pole on Saturday afternoon with a qualifying lap of 94.842 miles per hour. After falling in line behind Butch Miller following the drop of the green flag, the No. 83 Chevy was running so well, we took over the lead at lap 11. The car was awesome for the first segment of the race despite several caution periods that really didn't give us much of a chance to see how the car would run on long green runs. We continued to lead the race until lap 133 when we came in for a pit stop. The crew did an awesome job in the pits during our two stops, both times sending me back onto the track ahead of the competition. In fact, in the second pit stop at lap 250, one of our pit crew members, Gil Edwards, managed to complete the stop in record time even after he took a little trip over the hood of the No. 83 Camp Fire USA Georgia Council Chevy. As I came in for the pit stop, Gil, who is our tire specialist, approached the car to clean off the grill. Unfortunately, he was hit as I came in and landed on the hood of the car. He never missed a beat and continued with the stop as planned. The team finished the pit stop in seven seconds and sent me back out of the pits in first. Gil was clearly focused on getting through that pit stop quickly and didn't let a bit of a bumpy ride slow him down. More importantly, he wasn't injured during the incident. After the awesome pit stop, I knew that it was up to me to take the No. 83 Camp Fire USA Georgia Council Chevy to victory lane. It looked like we were on our way at least to a podium finish when, while running in second, Kevin Cywinski hit us from behind on lap 299. The incident sent the No. 83 Chevy hard into the outside wall causing extensive damage to the rear of the car. The car couldn't make it back to the finish line and once the checkered flag dropped, we were credited with a seventh-place finish. The good news is we kept our lead in the standings over Gary St. Amant, although the margin was narrowed to 12 points. Hopefully we will be able to make up ground in the last three events on the 2002 schedule. We travel to Illiana (Indiana) Motor Speedway in Schererville for our next event. The race, which will be held on Sunday, Sept. 22, will be broadcast live on The National Network (TNN) beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern. Until next time, Joey
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