Late Race Spin Relegates Smith To 12th Place Finish At Adirondack

 

            New Bremen, NY (August 2, 2009): Jonathan Smith was well on his way to a career-best finish Saturday night in the NASCAR Camping World Series East until a late-race spin relegated the driver to the middle of the field. The driver of the No. 16 Fadden Racing Chevrolet was able to recoup a 12^th place finish in the Edge Hotel 150 at Adirondack International Speedway, but it certainly was not indicative of his performance that evening.

            “We’re disappointed,” said Smith after the race. “We had a good car all day. When I looped it coming off of four the car wasn’t the same after that. It got tight. When you get so far back with only 20 or 30 laps to go there’s not much you can do to get by those guys.”

            Smith was a solid top-five car in the two practice sessions leading up to qualifying and the entire team was confident for a starting position in the first three rows. When Smith brought the No. 16 Chevrolet around turn four during his time trial, he got loose. The correction he needed to do to keep his momentum cost him valuable time.

            “I got loose coming off of four and right across the finish line it messed me up because I had to get out of the gas,” explained Smith. “We qualified 13^th and its tough at this track to be so far back. You have to pass on the inside and everyone blocks the inside.”

            But Smith did an excellent job of passing in the 150-lap feature event.

            By lap 30, Smith started his progression towards the front and moved into 11^th by lap 36. He got involved in a battle with Jesus Hernandez by lap 40 for position and used lapped traffic to his advantage to take away the 10^th spot. He was running seventh when the race hit the halfway mark.

            The action got dicey and Smith dropped back to 10^th. He quickly regained some ground and moved back up to eighth before a lap 125 spin sent him to the tail of the lead lap cars.

            “I just got out of the groove and once you get into the marbles you just don’t have any grip,” said Smith. “We had a much better car than that. We had a top-five or top-three car so this is really disappointing for us.”

            Fadden Racing heads to Lime Rock Park in two weeks for the next stop on the NASCAR Camping World Series East schedule. Currently, Smith is 11^th in the championship point standings with three races remaining.

            For more information on Fadden Racing or driver Jonathan Smith, visit www.faddenracing.net.

 

 

Rollercoaster Ride At Adirondack Nets Top-10 Finish For Moffitt

 

            New Bremen, NY (August 2, 2009): Brett Moffitt got a quick lesson in the ups and downs that short track racing can be infamous for at Adirondack International Speedway Saturday night.

            The 16-year-old Andy Santerre Motorsports driver overcame a mechanical issue in practice Saturday afternoon, recovered to qualify his No. 44 Chevrolet second fastest, led the NASCAR Camping World Series East’s Edge Hotel 150, but was relegated to an eighth place finish in the closing laps of the event.

            The top-10 finish was his sixth of the season in only eight starts.

            “He’s a little dejected right now,” said Andy Santerre after the race. “He did a good job. He was patient, but there were so many cars that were so even. The top seven or eight cars were under a blanket.”

            The team only got a couple of laps of practice in on the first afternoon session after they were forced to contend with a mechanical issue that mirrored that of the one they had at Thompson International Speedway. Santerre discovered it was an issue with the distributor cap and the team went to work on getting it fixed. By the second practice session, Moffitt was back in his groove and back on top of the speed charts. He qualified second fastest in time trials and was confident for a solid run in the feature event.

            “We tried plugs and wires. We had the same problem at Thompson and we took the engine to our engine guy and he had told us it was a spark plug. We fixed it and tried it out at the shop and everything was fine. We got the car here and it wouldn’t run,” explained Santerre. “We tried a bunch of stuff trying to find out what it was so that hurt us.”

            At the drop of the green, Moffitt, starting from the outside groove, lost his position to Matt Kobyluck. He settled into third and the trio pulled away from the rest of the field by two seconds.

            Just prior to the halfway mark, Kobyluck made a mistake that Moffitt capitalized on. Kobyluck went a little high giving the 16 year old the opportunity to take the bottom groove and drive by for second.

            Moffitt closed in on then-leader Eddie MacDonald and rode his bumper for the next several laps. At lap 80, MacDonald got a little high and Moffitt challenged on the inside. MacDonald wasn’t about to give up easily and the two went side-by-side with Moffitt just up to his door. It was lapped traffic, however, that forced Moffitt to back off on the challenge.

            Caution flew at lap 88 and put Moffitt side-by-side with MacDonald for the restart at lap 93. Moffitt beat him to the line and officially led the lap, but fell back to fourth before the field reached turn one.

            “I left them too much room going into turn one,” said Moffitt. “I was up in the rubber and the car wouldn’t turn.”

            Moffitt settled into fifth by lap 96, and took fourth away from Kobyluck just before a caution at lap 125. Moffitt would be on the outside for the restart once again. When they went back to green at lap 131, Moffitt dropped back further in the field.

            “We got shuffled to the back. If you get out of the groove by a foot you are done,” Moffitt said.

            Moffitt was eighth for the final restart with five laps remaining – exactly where he took the checkers.

            Andy Santerre Motorsports will return to action in two weeks at Lime Rock Park. Moffitt is currently sixth in the NASCAR Camping World Series East point standings.

            For more information on Brett Moffitt or Andy Santerre Motorsports, visit www.brettmoffitt.com or www.andysanterremotorsports.com.

 

Kobyluck Scores Top-Five Finish At Adirondack

 

            New Bremen, NY (August 2, 2009): Matt Kobyluck kept up a stellar record at Adirondack International Speedway by posting a fifth place finish in the Edge Hotel 150 Saturday night. It’s Kobyluck’s sixth top-five at the track in its eight-year event history. With three races remaining to the 2009 season, Kobyluck sits fourth in the points only 60 markers out of the lead.

            “We lost a little grip there at the end of the race,” said Kobyluck. “I gave it everything I had and got a top-five. That was the best we were going to get. The car was really good at the beginning of the race but it just faded a little bit at the end.”

            Kobyluck set the third fastest time in qualifying giving him a preferred inside groove starting position for the drop of the green. He immediately drove by Brett Moffitt to take over second behind Eddie MacDonald.

            MacDonald, Kobyluck, and Moffitt were the class of the field in the first half of the race, pulling away by over two seconds. The trio drove a carlength apart from each other as they started lapping the field early in the race.

            On a restart at lap 57, Kobyluck challenged MacDonald using the outside groove. The two were side-by-side for the entire lap. At the line, it was Kobyluck out front for the first lead change of the day. MacDonald continued to pressure Kobyluck for the next couple of laps. At lap 60, Kobyluck left the inside lane open and gave MacDonald the opportunity to go underneath him to challenge. The two went side-by-side for an entire lap, but at lap 62, MacDonald drove back out front.

            At lap 70, Kobyluck lost the second position to Brett Moffitt and third to Jody Lavender on lap 78.

            “I didn’t have anymore,” said Kobyluck. “I don’t think I could have gotten back to the lead at that point. I knew we had a top-five car and that was going to be about it.”

            Kobyluck was a solid contender in the top-five in the second half of the race – displaying some intense battles for position. After running fourth for several laps, Kobyluck wheeled the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet back into third on a lap 93 restart. Kobyluck remained among the top three until lap 104 when Ryan Truex was able to work his way underneath him for position.

            As a long green flag run developed, Kobyluck slid further and further back into the field. When caution flew at lap 125, Kobyluck was seventh for the restart. He knew he could gain some ground. He was fifth just four circuits after the lap 131 restart.

            Kobyluck maintained his position through the final restart at lap 141 and took the checkers with a fifth place finish.

            The Mohegan Sun Race team will have two weeks off to prepare for the Mohegan Sun 200 at Lime Rock Park on August 15^th. For more information on Matt Kobyluck, Mohegan Sun Casino, or the Mohegan Sun race team, visit www.mattkobyluck.com.

 

Delaney Relegated To 11^th Place Finish At Adirondack

 

            New Bremen, NY (August 2, 2009): Dustin Delaney had a top-five finish within his sights at Adirondack International Speedway Saturday night, but nine laps before the conclusion of the Edge Hotel 150, contact with another car sent him spinning around in turn four and ended all hopes for a podium finish in front of a hometown crowd. Delaney finished the NASCAR Camping World Series East event with an 11^th place finish.

            “(Brett) Moffitt had lost some position and was going strong to get back some position when he got into the back of us and spun us out,” said Delaney. “It’s short track racing I guess. I thought we had a lot more laps to go so I thought we would be all right and then my spotter came over the radio and told me five laps to go.”

            Delaney started the No. 39 Delaney Infrastructure Chevrolet fifth after a solid qualifying effort, and maintained his position in the top-ten for the first 141 laps of the event. He was fifth at lap 20 and remained there as the race went green for a long stretch.

            At lap 40, Ryan Truex started pressuring the Mayfield, N.Y. native, but Delaney held strong. At lap 45, Truex was able to get by using the bottom groove and relegated the Delaney Infrastructure Chevrolet to sixth after a brief side-by-side battle.

            Delaney held his ground in sixth, but fell back to eighth at lap 86 where he remained until lap 125. Delaney was running seventh when he got spun in turn four.

            “We gave up a couple of spots, but for the most part, we were a top-five car. I knew we had a few laps to go and I wasn’t really worried about it. I was saving some for the end because at this place patience is what it’s all about. We definitely had something up our sleeve for the last few laps.”

            Delaney lined up 13^th for the final restart of the night at lap 145 and gained two positions before the drop of the checkers.

            “We were definitely disappointed in our finish tonight,” he said. “We had a good car all day long. It’s a shame it had to end like that.”

            Delaney sits eighth in the NASCAR Camping World Series East point standings as the series heads to Lime Rock Park in two weeks for race nine of an 11-race schedule.

            For more information on Dustin Delaney, visit www.dustindelaney.com.

 

   MACDONALD FINISHES TENTH AT ADIRONDACK

 

 

     Eddie MacDonald scored his first ever Camping World Series East pole for the Edge Hotel 150 at Adirondack International Speedway with a time of 16.739 sec. (107.533mph). The Grimm Construction Chevy led the field with 101 laps but the handling went away late in the race causing MacDonald to slide back to tenth.

     “ It was so great to win the Coors Light Pole Award. We have been on the outside pole a number of times but this was my first in the Camping World East. I really thought we had a good chance to win this thing but the right front tire was just used up at the end. When I turned it in the corner, it just wanted to go straight.”

     When the green flag waved, MacDonald was able to establish a four-car length lead was not seriously challenged according to the driver, “I didn’t have anybody pushing me but we started off tighter than we should have been and that started using up the right front tire. I was just riding around out there. When we got to a hundred laps I thought we could run the last fifty the same way but it gave out at the end. It would have been nice to win it from the pole but it just didn’t happen.”

     Matt Kobyluck’s #40 took the lead from MacDonald on lap 51 but the #71 was able to re-take the top spot eleven laps later. By lap 96, MacDonald and Jody Lavender were pulling away from the field with the #88 taking first on lap 112 with MacDonald saying, “At that point we were really starting to slide in the turns. Later on when I started racing the #00 for second it felt like I was on ice. At that point I just started going backwards. It’s one of those things that happen. We were hoping for the win so it was disappointing to end up tenth.”

     The team will now prepare for the road course race at Lime Rock Park on August 15 and MacDonald feels confident the team can improve from third in the points with a solid run saying, “We had a pretty good car but the engine let go but we had a decent run in the back-up car. Hopefully we will definitely have a much better run this year and try to improve our position in the points.”