June 16, 2006
Elkin, NC

Frustrating Finish After First Legacy Pole

You can tell that things are going in the right direction, when everyone is disappointed with your fourth best finish of the year. There was excitement early in practice at Friendship Speedway on Friday night as a hot slick track led to Josh spinning the Horizon Technologies/Conterra Ultra Broadband #11 into the turn four wall on the second lap of practice. A little sledgehammer work was all that was needed to return Josh to the track to continue practice and to try to get a hold of the narrow racetrack. When the first practice was finished, Josh said that the car tightened up quite a bit and he would like it to be freer in the center of the corners. Adjustments were made prior to practice #2, but the results were much the same and the car remained tight from the middle, off the corner and our times were just barely top ten (at best). Crew Chief Blake Harris discussed changes with friend and consultant Tim Taylor for over 30 minutes before deciding on several adjustments to help Josh during qualifying. The changes were PERFECT as Josh ran a great lap and grabbed his first pole in the Allison Legacy Series in only his 9th start.

Things didn’t go well at the start of the 50 lap main event as Josh got pushed up out of the groove coming out of turn #2 and couldn’t find the bottom of the one groove race track. We would watch 11 cars get by Josh before he finally found a hole and started working his way back to the front. Josh made his way up to 7th and was all over the bumper of the 6th place car when the two touched in turn two and the contact sent the 31 car spinning, damaging the nose of Josh’s car in the process. After a trip to the pits to repair damage (removing ½ the nose and ½ of the right front fender) Josh returned to the track in around 20th position. Josh continued to run top five speeds for the rest of the night as he worked his way back up to his finishing position of 11th.

The finish, while disappointing, moved Josh up one spot in the point standings, to 9th , and separated him more from the competitors behind him.

Josh’s thoughts on Friday’s race: “The finish didn’t show it…but we have made great improvements over the past few weeks. We’ve qualified 3rd and 1st the last two weeks and I’ve been really confident in the car that Blake has put under me. Now I just have to finish it out and start getting the top five finishes that I know we are capable of. Getting our first pole was great, Blake and Mr. Taylor made all of the right changes from practice to qualifying and the car was really easy to drive…I actually thought it felt like a slow lap. We have a lot of confidence going to Myrtle Beach next weekend and hope we continue to run the way we have recently.”

The Allison Legacy Series will join the Hooters Pro Cup Series in Myrtle Beach on Saturday night (June 24th). Practice and qualifying will run from 2:00 – 4:00 with the 50 lap main event starting around 5:15pm.