Race Recap: 04/01 - Hickory Motor Speedway
We are getting closer and closer to the winner’s circle every week! Made a lot of progress again this week and came home with a P2 finish, our best so far in the 2023 season.
Saturday started off wet and gray outside, but we were confident the weather would clear by mid-morning; or at least the weather channel was confident! Sure enough, the track was dry by early afternoon and with rain clouds having left it started to get hot quickly. We only put a few laps on the car in each of the two practice sessions to try and save as much tire as we could for the main event, our first 50 lapper of the year. I noticed some of the other teams that typically run up front decided to make the same call and both practice sessions were light on car counts. Qualifying brought 13 competitors though, a really healthy field of cars!
As qualifying went on, the wind started really picking up and with the track starting to rubber it kept getting faster and faster with each driver. We went early in the qualifying order and were not able to benefit from the track conditions that continued improving. When things were all said and done, we were slated to start P5. Not exactly where we wanted to end up, but not a bad spot by any means; at least we would be on the inside!
After a restart due to an early jump by the leader, we got to racing! Everything stayed tight and competitive for the first few laps until a pile up in the very front of the field caught us up on lap 8. I hit to my rear bumper sent me spinning down at the exit of turn 2. I pulled into the pits for my crew to inspect the car and see if anything critical looked broken.
Luckily my pit crew cleared me and everything seemed to be handling properly. There were 42 laps left in the race when took the green for the third time. A long way to go. It was time to pick our way through the field one by one.
The rest of the race was a wild ride and a few great moments brought us all the way up to P2. We took the checkered flag and rolled down to the pit wall for a quick interview on FloRacing and some pictures with the crew and family!
It was an awesome night at Hickory and I can’t wait to keep make the car faster and faster. Thank you to everyone who supported us this past weekend and thank you for supporting grassroots racing! See you at the track!