Race Report:
Texas

Texas was supposed to be where Darren Manning and my ABC Supply team finally realized the potential we had been showing all season. After all, my team has won at Texas Motor Speedway in the past, we’ve gotten a handle on the 1.5 mile tracks and it’s my home track!

And then fate stepped in—we cut a tire in the opening laps of the race.

Darren tried to hold on, hoping for a yellow but finally he had to pit under green. When I saw the reason, it was a good thing that he did. I’m not sure how the Firestone tire stayed on the wheel but I’m glad it did. It could have been a lot worse.

We weren’t able to make up the laps because on the one yellow we might have, there was so much confusion about who was leading, and Darren wanted some changes to correct the push he had in the car, that I told him to pit. It was still early and I thought there might be some other opportunities to get our lap back.

As it turned out, there weren’t.

He was able to run laps as quick as the leaders though so if the circumstances had been different, we would have had a better finish.

We were able to gain some positions when my grandson’s car lost a wheel (because of a broken wheel nut) late in the race. Everyone checked up to avoid him and his wheel and cars started wrecking in fron of him. Darren almost had it missed but he got into the marbles and brushed the wall, knocking out the right front suspension.

My crew patched up the ABC Supply car and we limped around under caution while the crews cleaned up after the seven-car wreck. Sarah Fisher and Scott Dixon also rejoined the field and were able to finish out the race. Darren had to pit after the green flag came out. Still we picked up five positions to finish 13th. We’d been running 15th before the crash so if we hadn’t been involved, it would have been a top-10.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda doesn’t hold much weight in our business, and it never has with me. Results are what I respect.

We did pick up a position in the points – we’re now 12th. Our finishes haven’t really shown how much more competitive we’ve been this season. So we just have to grit our teeth and keep on working hard because it will come. As long as I can see we’re moving forward, I’m happy.

We just have to pick up the pace which I hope we do at our next race, the Iowa Corn Indy 250 at the brand new Iowa Speedway. It’s a 7/8 mile tri-oval which makes it different from any other track we race on. We will test there the day before for half a day so hopefully we’ll get a handle on it quickly.

The race will be televised live on ABC-TV starting at 1pm eastern time. I hope you tune in.