June 27, 2008
Blizzard Series Round 3
As soon as we showed up at Five Flags Speedway on Thursday afternoon it was obvious that this was going to be a pretty big race with many good cars. Even though it was just a Thursday practice session, there was already about fifteen or twenty cars present. We were good through Thursday practice, but not great and continually made minor changes to improve the car and by the end of the night I thought we had a pretty good chance at winning the race on Friday.
By the time the start of practice on Friday rolled around, it was as hot as it has been all year and the track was slick! I think this helped even out the field and really show what cars were going to be fast in the race and what cars just were relying on fresh tires and good track conditions to post a good time. Knowing how quickly most of the cars there would fall off, even just after a handful of laps gave me even more confidence and I really thought we had a chance for the first win of the season!
By the time I had to go out to qualify I knew that there were already some fast times on the board and it would not be easy to start up front. With the pole time set at 17.43, faster than I had ever run at five flags before, I knew it would be tough, but I also knew I could get the pole! Unfortunately after my two timed qualifying laps I was just shy of the fast time by only one one hundredth of a second. Although this was a great lap, it was frustrating being so close to getting my first pole but still not achieving that milestone.
As soon as we rolled through tech the whole mood of the night changed when the officials found the right rear quarter panel to be one quarter inch too high and made us start in the rear of the field for the feature race. After posting the second fastest time of the night, its pretty frustrating to have to start dead last, to say the least! I wanted to save my tires as much as I could during the race, so during the first green flag run I just took it easy and only passed cars when the opportunity arose and didn’t force anything. This proved to be a very good decision when after twenty or thirty laps everyone was going way slower and I was still able to hold a fairly steady pace.
On lap forty nine we pitted and took on two new right side tires. About five laps after this though a wreck happened right in front of me and as the caution flew another competitor got into the back of me and caused me to have to restart towards the back of the field in fourteenth. With only about forty laps to go it was going to be hard to move back up front, but the #94 ford fusion was definitely capable of getting there! At the end of the race I was running ninth right behind 2005 Snowball Derby Champion, Eddie Mercer and felt after all that had happened to the team so far that weekend, it was a solid finish which helped with the overall goal of winning the Blizzard Series Championship.
Check This Out!
All-American 400 in Nashville. GO
Top Stories:
| 04/20/2010 Mitch Cobb Looking at Opportunities for 2010 |
| 04/13/2009 Weekend Wrap-up |
| 04/10/2009 2009 Season Starts NOW! |
| 02/13/2009 Mitch Cobb Racing car dominates CRA event at Lanier National Speedway |
