August 5, 2006
Hickory, NC

Mechanical Failure Ends Top Five Run

After two practices on Saturday night, Josh felt that his Horizon Technologies/Conterra Ultra Broadband Legacy car would be in good shape for qualifying at the historic Hickory Motor Speedway. Josh toured the .363 mile oval at 17.075 seconds…good enough to put him 4th out of 27 cars, for the 50 lap race. Josh settled into 7th place early in the event and had made his way up to 5th by the half way point. A yellow slowed the field while he was inside the 4th place car with some 17 laps remaining and everyone was confident in getting a second consecutive top five run; however, on the restart the trouble started. What first appeared to be a missed shift, was quickly diagnosed as a clutch/transmission problem with the #11 machine and, with trouble shifting from 3rd to 4th gear, we knew that we would need to go the rest of the race under green to have a chance. We also knew that going the distance under green wasn’t going to happen. After dropping two spots on the troubled restart, Josh got one position back and was sitting in 6th coming to the green on lap 36…unfortunately, the car would not make the shift into 4th gear and he was passed by the entire field. Knowing that we would not be able to continue safely…the decision was made to park the car for the night. Everyone did a great job preparing the car and making changes throughout the night…and we knew that a top five run slipped away.

Josh on Saturday’s run: “It was great to be competitive and again run in the top five…I just wish we could have gotten to finish, we definitely had a top five car tonight. I think we have qualified in the top five 7 out of the last 8 races, we just aren’t getting the top five finishes. The car was great, I felt comfortable both in the high and low groove, we were just trying to stay out of trouble (which happens a lot at Hickory) until the closing laps. I just couldn’t get the car to shift into 4th gear, if there was any way to continue we would have…but it didn’t make sense to continue and possibly wreck a really good race car.

One of the highlights of the night for me was getting to meet Former Winston Cup Champion, and three time Daytona 500 winner, Bobby Allison. Any time you get to meet and talk to a legend and pioneer of the sport, it is something special. While we all work to reach our goals, we need to stop and remember the people that made racing great, Mr. Allison is definitely one of those people and it was an honor meeting him.”

The #11 team is going to evaluate the racing schedule before deciding what to do next weekend. Check back for further schedule updates.