Stephen Leicht's daily blog from Memphis, Day 2
We had a long day yesterday, but it ended up being pretty good, all considering.
We missed the set up for qualifying and that early draw resulted in a 31st-place effort. What made it worse was the fact that we hit the front end a few times during time trials and broke the front valence. Dan Deeringhoff, our crew chief, decided we would fix the damage and start from the rear of the field.
Once the race started, we knew we had a pretty strong Chevrolet, it was just going to take a while to get towards the front. Then, we were involved in an accident on lap seven. We had some bad damage to the front and rear of the No. 29, but the over-the-wall guys did an awesome job to fix what they could.
We went back out there and were still able to work our way into the top-20 with ease. We got run over when I slowed down later on, but we got lucky and didn’t have any damage.
During the final laps, it got really wild. Eric McClure was injured during a wreck in Turn 4 and I hope he’s doing alright. Then three more cautions before we ended up going to overtime with a green, white checkered finish. Guys were beating and banging each other over the final 30 laps, including us. I was able to pick up 10 spots during that time and finished ninth.
I mean when you have a wrecked car and finish in the top 10, that’s a good day. Everyone on the Holiday Inn team never gave up today and I’m proud of all the hard work they put in all weekend.
One of the coolest non-racing parts of the day, was meeting Kemmons Wilson’s son and grandchildren. Wilson was the founder of Holiday Inn and it was fun to learn about the empire he built. It was their first race and they were excited to see us work our way back towards the front at the end.
We had a solid points day yesterday and can still get up to fourth in the owners’ point standings before it’s all over. Next weekend the Nationwide Series will enjoy their last weekend off for the season before heading to Texas.
Thanks for keeping up with me this week on my blog! I think Richard Childress is writing next week’s, so be sure to check it out at www.rcrracing.com.
