November 11, 2006
Florence, SC

Near Perfect Day at 200 Lap “Autumn Championship”

After sitting on the pole two weeks ago in Myrtle Beach, and leading the most laps, only to see his first top three of the season get taken away coming out of turn four…Josh was determined to come back strong at Florence Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Florence Motor Speedway has been a tough place for the entire Horizon Technologies/Conterra Ultra Broadband team this year with limited success at the track in the first two races there. Even though we had yet to really run well on the track, there was a tremendous amount of confidence as we unloaded Friday for practice. Early practice showed decent speed, but far from what was needed to be competitive on Saturday night. On Saturday, additional practice…and changes showed improved lap times for Josh and we felt that we were close to where we needed to be. In the final practice of the day, even though he turned some of his fastest laps of the day, Josh reported that the car had turned very tight and would need major changes to be competitive.

With limited time between practice and qualifying (Crew Chief) Blake Harris made some of those last minute changes that have worked so well in the past. Josh took the track 4th out of the 36 cars that would take time for the 200 lap event and quickly put up a lap that we knew wouldn’t get the pole…but would solidly put us in the top ten to start the race. The lap was better than we thought as it stood up as the top time throughout more than half the field before the track cooled down towards the end of qualifying and three cars bettered Josh’s time, putting Josh 4th in the 36 car field.

We preached to Josh all day that 200 laps is a long way and even continued to discuss patience as the cars circled the track prior to the drop of the green flag. Josh was patiently aggressive all night as he got in line on the start in 5th…and that was as low as he would run all night. Josh made his way into the top three by lap 10 and settled in for the long night ahead. Josh took the mandatory caution at lap 100 in second place and asked Blake for very minor changes to the #11 to loosen the car off the corners. Josh ran every lap of the final 100 laps in second place and rarely ran a lap more than one car length off the leader. In the end, Josh took the checkers in second place, his first top three of the season, and was the rookie of race.

Josh on Saturday’s run: “That was a really fun race…a long race, but a fun race. Being a rookie in this series, I’m trying to race up front with these guys and prove to everyone that I belong there and that I can race with them clean. I think after the last two races, I’ve proved both of those things and we, as a team, have proved that we can put one of the top cars on the track. Blake has just done such a great job this year, I can’t say enough about what he has done…and I can’t thank him enough. His adjustments prior to qualifying and the race were perfect…I could have easily driven that car another 100 laps if I had to, it was that good. I pushed the leader pretty hard and maybe I could have been a little more aggressive, but I don’t want to be the one to determine the outcome of the points championship by taking out the points leader.

We had a GREAT night and that’s two races in a row that we have had one of the two fastest cars, if not the fastest. I’m having a blast driving this race car and I can’t wait to get back in it over the winter to test and then get back at it next year. I’m sure most drivers like working with their crew chiefs…but I’ll put Blake up against anyone in this series…we are lucky to have him on the team.”

The Allison Legacy Series is done with oval races for the year; however, they will head back to the Road Course in Kershaw, SC on December 3rd for the final race of the season. The #11 team is going to evaluate things over the next week and make a decision as to whether we will run the event or just start preparing for next year.