You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Loose Wheel

Dave Rogers brought a rocketship to Texas for Carl.  Other than ending the first practice in 21st place, the 19 car was one of the fastest cars on the track.  In the other practice, he was the second fastest car on the track.  And in between those two practices, Carl earned his first pole of the year . . . and a sexy looking rifle!

Some sprinkles, cool temperatures, and very little wind conspired to delay the start of the race for almost two hours.  But once the race got underway, that Stanley Camry looked good leading the field.  He spent the first portion of the race showing how strong his car was, leading easily much of the time.  And when he slid back it was only to 2nd or 3rd place.

Until . . . a restart when he noticed a loose wheel.  He carefully brought the car back down pit road before anything bad happened to the car to get four new tires.  But that put him a lap down.  There were quite a few other cars one lap down, and he worked diligently to pick them off one at a time.  He only had one more car to pass to get into the lucky dog position, but the caution would not wait.  He restarted in the lucky dog position, fending off the other cars one lap down to maintain that spot.   Fortunately he did not have to wait too much longer for another caution.

This time he restarted on the lead lap just outside the top 15 but at the tail end of the field behind the lapped cars.  He was working his way through those lapped cars when yet another caution came out, allowing him to get repositioned closer to the front.  With a few of the lead lap cars involved in the caution, he found himself back in the top 10.

I have to admit that at that point, with about 50 laps to go, I thought he was going to drive right up to the front and challenge for the lead.  And I would bet that he thought so, too.  But his car did not seem to have the same dominant speed he showed in the first half of the race.  He ended the night with a 7th place finish.  A bit disappointing compared to the potential shown, but not a bad result from having gone a lap down.

 

Many other drivers would have berated their pit crews for the loose wheel.  We can all name the usual suspects.  But not Carl.  He  claimed that something must have gone wrong with the equipment because his team just does not make mistakes.  That is just how the 19 team rolls.

He maintained his spots on the Chase grid (6th) and in the drivers' standings (4th).  Now on to Bristol, where Carl has won a sword before.  Do you remember this?