It’s the third week of February, and the racing season is growing ever closer. Daytona Speedway was full of activity this past weekend, with Bobby Gerhart winning a record 8th Daytona ARCA 200. Bobby has been a big influence in my life and racing career. I worked for Bobby during the ’04 and ’05 seasons, and learned a tremendous amount. I know how much the superspeedways mean to him and want to congratulate him on another awesome performance.
Last week we visited the highs and lows of the sport once again, and for me at least I was starting to lose motivation going to the track. I had earned my first career pole, and was on point to lead the field to the green flag, but inexperience played a crucial role in keeping me from doing just that. I spun off of turn 4 coming to take the green flag. Somehow I spun through the entire pack and wasn’t touched.
I don’t believe I have ever had a more embarrassing moment in my life than what had just happened to me that night. I had stalled the car during the spin, and to add insult to injury the engine was flooded, so it wouldn’t start. A push truck finally came around and got me going again. My crew would stand just outside the fence off of turn 2. They were all lined up at the fence as I came around and I couldn’t have felt smaller. I knew they were upset and I knew I had let them down. All of their hard work, the countless hours in the shop, all those Saturday nights spent at the track. I didn’t even want to look at them- I was too ashamed. I rejoined the field at the back of the pack and waited to go green again. The view at the back of the pack was certainly not as nice as up at the front.
The green flag was waived and again I brought the car up to speed. I made up a few spots over the first couple of laps and was sitting 15th at the end of lap 6. We had a caution and bunched the field back up; the track crew cleared the accident and sent us back to racing. I passed a couple more cars and then 2 cars tangled in front of me. I missed the wreck, but the yellow flag flew again. I was 10th now, and we were 1 lap shy of halfway. My crew was starting to come back to life and was standing up at the fence again. The green flag was once again displayed and racing resumed. I had a great restart and was able to pick up another spot right away, followed by another 2 laps later. With 12 laps to go, 1st and 2nd place was battling hard and made contact. It sent those two cars hard into the fence, along with the rest of the field trying to get through the carnage.
There was nothing but smoke in front of me, and everybody was going low to miss the wreck. I saw each car in front of me make contact with the car ahead of them. The bottom of the track was becoming a mess of twisted sheetmetal and wrecked racecars. I figured I could go low and add to the accident, or I could try the high side and play the odds. As I was trying to find a path to drive, a car came rocketing past me from the bottom of the track and bounced off the outside wall. I missed him (or maybe he missed me) and a space just big enough for a racecar opened in front of me. I steered towards it and punched the gas. The next thing I know I see nothing but clear track in front of me. I MADE IT THROUGH THE WRECK! All of the sudden I was sitting in 2nd place. From the highs to the lows, back to the highs again.
I came around turn 2 and my crew was jumping up and down and giving me the “thumbs up” sign. If only I could bring this thing home in the top three, they might forgive me for what happened earlier. It took a while, but the track was cleaned up and we were ready to go racing again. My crew was motioning to me to take my time and be smart. The green flag was waving and we were racing once again. Coming off of turn 2, the leader got loose and wiggled up the track a little bit, that was all I needed- I got a great drive off the corner and pulled to the inside. When we got to turn 3, I had the inside groove and the position. As we came across the line, I was now the leader, and leading my first lap in my career. I cannot describe to you the range of emotion that I was feeling at that very moment. My crew was going out of their minds as well.
I got the “10 laps to go” sign from the flagger, and I started praying to the racing gods to keep this race green for the rest of the night. Time seems to go backwards when you are leading races, even today- it’s easier to chase someone for a whole race and win it with 5 to go than lead it flag to flag. That night an eternity seemed to pass until I go the “5 to go” signal. My crew was telling me through the use of hand signals that I had a decent lead over 2nd place. The head flagger showed me that there were only 2 laps to go and my crew was telling me I had a big lead now. I was going out of my mind. I could sense that this could actually happen, and I just needed to keep hitting my marks. The white flag was waving as I came off turn 4, and I just had to keep it together for one more lap.
Now as I came off of turn 2 and looked at my crew expecting to see them telling me my lead was safe and that the race was in hand. Instead they are all jumping around motioning for me to “GO GO GO” as if someone was right behind me. I freaked out and dropped to the bottom to guard against getting passed. I came off turn 4 and saw the most beautiful sight a racecar driver can expect to see. 2 checkered flags and nobody in front of me; I put my arm out the window and started screaming my head off.
I couldn’t believe it- we just won a race and I was headed to Victory Lane . I stopped at turn 2, and waited for my crew to come out as they headed to the winners circle; I revved the motor and did a little burnout as I drove away.
Winning a race sure does cure a lot of things in racing. That was a good night, and next week we will touch on how you can lose all ability to control yourself in victory lane. I want to ask everybody to check me out on San Diego Motorsports Radio this Sunday (Feb 26 2012 ) night at on KCBQ.com or for those of you who live in San Diego- 1170 AM. We will sit down with Yonah the host and talk racing. As always please visit my sponsors, they make doing interviews like the one on Sunday night possible. Thanks for stopping by.
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