NASCAR RnR’s Grassroots Racing Team Update: On track incident makes it hot in the garage area

Brad (Driver):

Basically we had a really bad push in the middle we needed to get rid of, but I didn’t want to ruin the good bite we had coming off the corner. So after a lot of thinking and talking with Jeff, we came up with a plan and what changes we were going to make.

Bring on Friday night!

I was super pumped to try the car with the changes we made and I was really confident in what we had done.

In the heat race we started 4th and had a great battle for the lead. The car was dynamite! It was close at the line and I still am not sure if we got 2nd or 3rd in the heat, but it didn’t matter....the car was perfect.

A small chassis adjustment was made to keep up with the track and we were ready for the main.

Started 14^th in the main, I settled in and got to the bottom groove. The car was flawless – literally point the nose and stand on the gas. Once we moved up through the pack we were in middle of a fierce battle for the lead with four other cars....lap after lap, door to door....so fun to drive.

In the closing laps however, another car (the 5h) must have really wanted the lane I was in, because going into turn 3, I’m certain he neither lifted nor turned and drove square into me in the left rear. Needless to say, after the car landed, we had a flat right rear, a differential housing that was not even close to pointing straight and our night was done – all because of someone else’s stupidity (see pictures of car after the jump). We ended up finishing 18^th.

Is anyone else picking up on the pattern here? And for all the hockey fans out there, there was a good shouting match between teams after in the pits. They were blaming us saying we chopped them and that’s what caused the contact. What I don’t think they knew is we had the Go Pro Camera on and a picture (or a video in this case) is worth a thousand words....you be the judge (see video below).

All in all I was really happy with the night and really happy with the car. That’s it in a nutshell. Thanks again to my crew for their work on the car through the week, and for standing behind me (and a few times in front of me) in our ordeal in the pits after the race."

Jeff (Crew Chief): "It is a good thing we built the door in 2 parts, the seam is under the rub-rail. Six bolts and then we can pound it out. We think we need only a couple of hours to put the rear-end back together."

(Editor's Note: After looking at the video, it appears to me that Brad does not come down and 'chops' off the other car)

Good thing the rubplate is there or the damage would have been worse. Credit: Jeff Todd (Herron Racing)

Everything has been moved over. Note the leaf spring touching the shock. Credit: Jeff Todd (Herron Racing)

Secondary damage from another car. It Brad's car wasn't there the other car would have spun right around, instead he hit Brad to stop his spin and was able to keep the car pointed in the right direction. Credit: Jeff Todd (Herron Racing)