June 2, 2007
Matthews, NC

Best Run of the Season Keeps Josh’s Momentum Rolling

The Allison Legacy Touring Series ran at Peach State Speedway twice last season, but Josh Butler and the Butler Motorsports Team only ran one of those races…and that race was Josh’s second race in the car. So with very few notes, and an entirely new setup from when they were there last time, the team headed to Jefferson, GA knowing that they would only get a half an hour practice since the Legacy Series was running the event as a companion race with the Hooters Pro Cup Series. All of those obstacles didn’t seem to phase crew chief Blake Harris one bit as he put a set up in the car that quickly showed top five speeds early in practice and, after only one minor air pressure change, the team was confident enough in the laps that Josh was turning that they cut practice short by ten minutes and prepared for qualifying.

Taking the track 23rd of 25 cars, Josh was able to back up his practice times and put his Horizon Technologies/Summitt Communications/Conterra Ultra Broadband Monte Carlo 3rd on starting grid…equaling his best start of the 2007 season. With rain falling all afternoon, Josh decided he was going to take turn one easy at the drop of the green flag, unfortunately the cars behind him didn’t have the same plan. Josh found himself in the middle of a three wide race down the backstretch on the first lap and fell into line 5th when everyone finally got single file. Sitting 4th when the first caution flag flew on lap 11, Josh began to work on the third place car trying to get back to the front. There was good, clean racing over the next 30 laps while Josh battled with the 3rd place car, finally getting the position with about 15 laps to go. The top three in points sat first, second and third on the track as the cars took the green flag for the last time with just over 10 laps remaining. Josh’s car continued to handle well over the closing laps and he was able to work his way into the runner up spot with five laps remaining…finishing there as he was unable to chase down the leader.

Josh on Saturday’s run: “We really seem to run well at the bigger tracks…I like driving them and Blake really seems to have them figured out. The car was good from the first lap and we can finally say that we got a finish that we deserved. I got into 2nd with about five laps to go and I don’t think I had anything for the winner…he was really hooked up. But we had a GREAT car and I can’t thank Blake enough for the cars that he has been giving me. We picked up a few points on second place in the standings and we separated ourselves a lot from fourth and fifth. Now we head back to Orange County Speedway next weekend. I like running Orange County and we have a couple top fives there but we haven’t had a ton of success…that would be a great place to get our first win.”

The Allison Legacy Series returns to Orange County Speedway this coming Saturday for a 50 lap points race. It will be the first of two races at the track for the series in June…with the second being the 75 lap mid-season championship on June 30th. Check back next week for the Orange County update.