We finished 23rd in our qualifying race and 31st in the Daytona 500 after a crash. I collapsed at the track Thursday and spent 3 days in ICU. I did get to watch the race from the pits, but didn't get to work the race. Then found out Tuesday that due to my unknown health situation the team has decided it would be best that I not continue to do my job, so I will be released at the end of the week.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me and wished me well with my career. I hope this isn't the end, but if it is, I'm thankful for all of you who believed in me.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Bud Shootout/Qualifying
The past weekend opened the action for the NASCAR season, with a non points, cash only race, and Qualifying for the Daytona 500. The track opened on Thursday Feb. 4, for practice for the Budweiser Shootout cars, there were 24 eligible drivers for the race who participated in the event. Our driver was not eligible, but one of our team cars ran the race with John Andretti behind the wheel.
The race was slated for 75 laps, 25 laps to start, a ten minute break to service the car, and then a 50 lap shootout. The race was flagged 5 times for cautions, Lap 25 for a Michael Waltrip spin, lap 33 when Mark Martin wrecked, lap 41 for a spin by Jeff Burton, lap 71 for a three car accident, and one on lap 76 after an 8 car pileup in turn three which caused the race to end under caution. 5 drivers swapped the lead 12 times with Kevin Harvick taking the checkers after a wild battle for the lead spot.
Friday the garage was open to all crews with plans on running the Daytona 500. 2 Practices were scheduled, the first of which were used for mock qualifying runs of 2 laps. After 48 of the 54 cars made their runs the rains came and washed out the rest of the days activities. Saturday brought on qualifying, the results of which set the first 2 spots for the Daytona 500, the rest of the spots will be determined by the Gatorade Dual 150 qualifying races on Thursday.
Our Recap:
Our 2 lap run for practice showed us we had some work to do to get our car to handle for Robert Richardson. After some changes on Friday, we sent Robert out to qualify for the 500. We managed to pick up 1.1 seconds from practice, which is a lot of time for a race car, but we only managed 44th our of 54 cars. That has us starting 23rd for the first Gatorade Dual race, our teammates of John Andretti and Travis Kvapil are also in the first race. Andretti will start from the 21st spot, and Kvapil will start 24th. We hope to work together, learn as much as we can, and stay out of trouble, as we will be using this as more of a test session for the 500 rather than trying to improve our starting spots.
For the Bud Shootout, since we didn't have a car in the field, I was able to work with our teammates crew in the 34 pit to try to get a jump start on knowing what I need to do come Thursday's qualifying race. Andretti ran a clean, uneventful race, until 5 laps to go when Ryan Newman made contact with Michael Waltrip sending him spinning up the track right in front of Andretti. The contact with Waltrip rendered Andretti's car incapable of finishing the race and relegating him to a 22nd place finish.
Preview:
The upcoming weekend will be the Daytona 500. The Gatorade Duals will run on Thursday at 2pm on Speed channel. Then the Daytona 500 will be on Sunday, Feb. 14th at 1pm on Fox.
The race was slated for 75 laps, 25 laps to start, a ten minute break to service the car, and then a 50 lap shootout. The race was flagged 5 times for cautions, Lap 25 for a Michael Waltrip spin, lap 33 when Mark Martin wrecked, lap 41 for a spin by Jeff Burton, lap 71 for a three car accident, and one on lap 76 after an 8 car pileup in turn three which caused the race to end under caution. 5 drivers swapped the lead 12 times with Kevin Harvick taking the checkers after a wild battle for the lead spot.
Friday the garage was open to all crews with plans on running the Daytona 500. 2 Practices were scheduled, the first of which were used for mock qualifying runs of 2 laps. After 48 of the 54 cars made their runs the rains came and washed out the rest of the days activities. Saturday brought on qualifying, the results of which set the first 2 spots for the Daytona 500, the rest of the spots will be determined by the Gatorade Dual 150 qualifying races on Thursday.
Our Recap:
Our 2 lap run for practice showed us we had some work to do to get our car to handle for Robert Richardson. After some changes on Friday, we sent Robert out to qualify for the 500. We managed to pick up 1.1 seconds from practice, which is a lot of time for a race car, but we only managed 44th our of 54 cars. That has us starting 23rd for the first Gatorade Dual race, our teammates of John Andretti and Travis Kvapil are also in the first race. Andretti will start from the 21st spot, and Kvapil will start 24th. We hope to work together, learn as much as we can, and stay out of trouble, as we will be using this as more of a test session for the 500 rather than trying to improve our starting spots.
For the Bud Shootout, since we didn't have a car in the field, I was able to work with our teammates crew in the 34 pit to try to get a jump start on knowing what I need to do come Thursday's qualifying race. Andretti ran a clean, uneventful race, until 5 laps to go when Ryan Newman made contact with Michael Waltrip sending him spinning up the track right in front of Andretti. The contact with Waltrip rendered Andretti's car incapable of finishing the race and relegating him to a 22nd place finish.
Preview:
The upcoming weekend will be the Daytona 500. The Gatorade Duals will run on Thursday at 2pm on Speed channel. Then the Daytona 500 will be on Sunday, Feb. 14th at 1pm on Fox.
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