IRL: Richmond 150

Not much to say about this one. I knew it was going to be hell. On my 2nd qual lap, I had a tire just fly off...without touching anything. At least I got a decent time in before.

So I started the race, moved up a position or two and decided to drop back some when we hit lap traffic. At some point, Bob made contact with the wall and came across me when trying to get to the pits, stuff happens, no blame there. As I was trying to do it then, same thing occured, not sure who I screwed. Spent several laps in the pits repairing both wings and went back out to a caution. Everyone stopped on the track, I couldnt....another wing. Repaired that one, pulled out of the pits with no wings, 58 seconds and they werent repaired!

Overall, I took about 5 lap penalties on top of replacing no less than 7 wings before the engine burned up in the pits. 25 some laps down.

I hate Richmond. At least I got to save alot of people by stewarding.

Just before race,I changed strategy and elected to simply follow the advice that Kevin Banic gave me at Indy, "Keep car off of wall because even lightest brush slows car down". So it seemed a little like I was driving in wrong configuration, got lapped after just 10-15 laps, kept driving my line avoiding wall and after a few cautions I found myself in lead. Since I preserved tires, I ended up only needing to pit once... The time that I ganned when saving pit stops was not nearly enough to keep lead... Many guys were much faster than me.

My goal was to complete at least one lap, so a top 10 is like a victory for me!

Thank you JR for stewarting. Guys I was trying to clear penalties fast enough but things just was not working out right for some reason.

I type 70+ words per minute, so it was no big deal. We all thank you for the effort, William.

Was in 11th keeping out of trouble...pitted and well a picture is worth a thousand words....enough said.
congrates to the winner and the rest of the pods.

grab that batch file clearing thing from Tim M. that will help a lot with the penalties.

the rest it was a nightmare.

fuel bug got me, to stick me in the pits. Found out my car can hold over 8500 liters of fuel. lol

Kevin

Wow. I got there late and started at the back. Passed a few people then got squeezed between two cars and spun Bob Fay (sorry) just as a yellow came out. Went into the pits under the yellow to repair the damage and somebody plowed into the back of my car while I was sitting there. It looked like he got punted into me, but I couldn't be sure. I was done for after that.

The track was like a slalom course with all the wings littering the place. LOL

Too bad the penalty things were so messy, but man I had a pretty great race. I can't believe I qualified 4th, that's just unreal. And I actually think I could have kept pace with that bunch, but I couldn't get out of the high groove. Wound up falling all the way back to 13th and things went crazy when we caught some slow traffic. I had damage all the way around but hung on to both wings. Stayed afloat to the first yellow, pitted, was feeling fine, when I got tagged from behind on a pace-car accordion moment. Not sure who, but not really your fault anyway. Luckily another yellow came right after.

After that, kept soldiering on and ran as high as 2nd. I should have been able to fight for 3rd, but because the yellows were so short, you basically lost a lap for stopping even under yellow, so Thrasher was able to put that gap on me. If it had worked, I'd have been a few spots behind him in line with fresh tires. Oh well, once I figured out that I wasn't catching him, I had almost a full lap on 5th, so I coasted in from there.

Good race everyone, props for fighting through rough conditions. Next week, right turns, where I suspect I shall return to my rightful place at the back of the field. See you there!

is having no penalties a opinion then a steward issue a deserved one?

Bob Z...it was me who landed in the back of your car....punted by the pace car(see Pic)