July 21, 2007
Matthews, NC

Mechanical Failure Ends Great Run, But Not a Great Event

Saturday afternoon was “Horizon Technologies Day” at Southern National Speedway in Kenly, NC and the Butler Motorsports team wanted very badly to put on a good show for their friends and sponsors.  It worked for half a race, but unfortunately a burned plug wire on lap 24 (of the 50 lap event) sent Josh Butler’s Horizon Technologies #11 to the pits while running 2nd and the team would never recover.  Josh qualified 4th for the event and was slowly reeling in the leader when the plug wire problem sent him to the back quickly…ending his day with an unofficial 18th place finish. 

The poor finish couldn’t put a damper on the barbecue and party for the Horizon Technologies friends and employees after the race however…EVERYONE there had a great time.  About 100 people attended the event and many gathered around Josh’s car (as well as the Midget brought down by Ed Dellarco of EDS Motorsports in Ohio) to get pictures taken and take their turn at sitting in the race cars.  All at Butler Motorsports want to thank Steve Stallings and everyone at Horizon Technologies for a GREAT event and for all they do for the team! 

Josh Butler on Saturday’s Race:  “I had a good race car today…Blake has put a lot of work into getting the car ready for this race and it really showed.  We were quick from the time we showed up to test on Friday and it stayed that way right up until the plug wire burned.  We know that we had a top three car today, we just didn’t get to bring it home…and I hate that for all of the people watching from Horizon Technologies.  We had such a good time after the race with everyone and no one seemed to care that we didn’t have a good finish…they liked seeing the car run up front for the first half of the race.  Just like my dad has said many times…we can’t do this without the support of Mr. Stallings and Horizon Technologies and we want to thank them every time we get the chance. 

We will be back in the car at Hickory on August 4th and we are approaching it like it is the start of the season all over again…we will be ready to turn our luck around and get some wins before we close out the season.”

Friday at Kenly started with a Legacy test as well as Josh’s first laps in a USAC National Midget that Ed Dellarco brought down from Ohio.  Josh only put two test sessions on the midget but in his second time out looked like he was ready to turn it loose.  Both Josh and Ed were very pleased with how the test went and everyone is hoping to do some USAC racing in 2008. 

Josh on testing the USAC Midget:  “That car was awesome…the acceleration that it had was amazing!  I got to test a Nextel Cup car at The Jeff Gordon Driving School over at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and even though they were faster, I was way more impressed with this midget.  I can’t wait to get back in that car and run it some more…and then give Mr. Dellarco’s sprint car a try.  Mr. Dellarco told me what a good job I did the second time I went out and that meant a lot to me.  I was trying to be really smooth and just get the car a little faster every lap…it seemed like it worked. 

My dad and I really appreciate Mr. Dellarco traveling all the way down here from Ohio to let us test the car and to spend the weekend with us at the Legacy race.  Ed is a great guy and we all look forward to doing some more racing with him in the near future.” 

Josh heads north this coming weekend to run Friday and Saturday night in the Boardman License Bureau/Summitt Communications E-Mod…check back for results!