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16 August 2008 Roseville Ca. With only 5 races remaining in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at All American Speedway, Laura Hayes continues to search for the 2nd win of her rookie season in the late models. She came close again on Saturday night in a finish surprising to both Laura and her team.
Throughout the day, the crew struggled with the car. They worked on handling during the two practice sessions and got the car dialed in but Laura was still a couple of tenths off of the pace. It was quite noticeable that they were lacking in top end power compared to the other competitors. But nothing obvious could be found wrong at the time and they decided they would have to work with what they had.
During qualifying, Laura turned her fastest lap of the day but it was only good enough for 7th fast in the 16 car field. Additional setup checks revealed an out-of-square rear end, a problem that was corrected before the main. The hope being that this would resolve some of the speed disparity, but the setup would have to be a guess going into the very cool evening main event.
The #22 car started 7th, inside of row 4 for the 50 lap feature. Laura got by 6th place in the early laps and then began pursuing 5th place. With a full moon on the horizon, everyone knew it was going to be an "interesting" race. And it was, as it was packed with cars blowing engines spilling oil on the track, cars spinning, much controversy and an abundance of booing from the stands that the drivers could even hear. Laura was having difficulty with the car throughout the race. The team made their decisions on setup but appeared to have gone a bit too far as Laura battled a very loose race car. When the 4th and 5th place cars started to pull away, Hayes was beginning to think she would have to settle for a 6th place finish but on a mid race restart, she knew she could change the outcome if she could out smart the other drivers. When the green flag flew on lap 37, the #22 stayed in the high groove when everyone else immediately went into the lower line. Hayes rolled around three cars and raced into the 3rd position coming down the backstretch. It was a perfectly planned restart that had the crowd cheering for Laura and now she was in the position for a win.
In the closing laps, Hayes moved into 2nd. Every time the car started to come to her, another caution flag dropped. In the final green flag run, Laura was able to catch the leader but didn't have enough to get the job done and would have to settle for 2nd, a finish that the team didn't initially think they had a car good enough to achieve.
With only 4 races remaining in the season, Laura now sits in 6th place in points, but only 11 out of 4th. If the team can stay as consistent as they've been with top 5's, there is a good chance of getting a top 5 in the points chase.
Laura Hayes Racing is made possible by:
Peoplefinders.com, K&N Filters, Golden State Racing, GoneRacin.com, RPM-Race Place Motorsports, PHI-Phil Hayes Inc., Team MMI, Outlaw Graphics, FRE-Finishline Racing Equipment, Northbay Welding, Gold's Gym, Scribner Plastics, VIP-Voris Investment Properties, Radial Tire of Elk Grove, Lee Power Steering, Davis Motorsports of Reno
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