2008 Summer Shootout Legends Stories - Round Five - July 8th, 2008
Lowe's Motor Speedway - Concord, North Carolina (Quarter-Mile Track)
MASTERS: HAIR DOMINATES A RAINY RACE WHILE SOSSOMAN SLIPS UP ~ By James Spencer
Despite some scattered thunderstorms turning the quarter-mile oval into a slick, wet danger zone, Clay Hair braved the elements to cross the finish line first, winning his third consecutive Masters race at the ’08 Summer Shootout.
The rain made for a slow, steady race with most of the drivers taking caution to avoid wrecking in the turns. If one could’ve located the beginning and end of the field by the time the checkered flag came out, they would’ve recognized Hair as the head of the race devouring its own tail and Hoyt Demis as a close and consistent neck.
Clay Hair is good in the rain. He proved that again Tuesday night by winning at LMS. (LN Photo)
“The car was working really good in the rain,” said Hair. “It pushed with me just a little bit in the center so I could trail-break. Once I got the front of the car down and figured out what the car was doing, I was good. I knew that just as soon as I got out front, I was little a little bit faster than Hoyt.”
From his first place starting position, Demis ran a solid race, being passed only by Hair after the race’s only yellow flag.
“I know Clay was pretty quick,” said Demis. “I think he was going to be coming no matter what. After what we’ve been having, we’ll take a second place and move on to week six.”
Shortly after Hair took the lead, John Sossoman, the point leader and Hair’s main competitor, suffered a minor accident around the second turn. He continued to race, but never fully regained his position.
“Me and Jeff Turner bumped a little bit,” explained Sossoman. “It wasn’t his fault. I was just trying to stay on the dry part of the track. I was trying to pass him. He pushed up and nicked me in the rear a little bit. It just happens in racing.”
The results of this week’s race narrowed Sossoman’s point lead over Hair, making up for the latter’s 17th-place finish the week before his winning streak started.
“Me and Clay should be pretty much about dead even now,” stated Sossoman. “I’m not really worried at all about points. They make racing more like a job and less about having fun. I’ve ran here for many, many years and never won those points. I’ve led them all the way up until the end. I’m a wreck-or-checker kind of guy.”
Hair, who has won the points championship more than most can count, agreed.
“I don’t keep up with points until the last night,” said Hair. “[Sossoman] probably doesn’t feel any different about me getting slammed back in week two.”
SEMI-PRO: JORDAN PENNINGER FINALLY CLAIMS SEMI-PRO SHOOTOUT WIN #1 ~ By Jason Buckley
Following Buescher across the line was Tyler Green. Green wasn’t planning on running the Summer Shootout at all now that he is driving a Late Model Stock Car, but he missed Tuesday nights too much to stay away for the complete 10-weeks. Sadly, his first night back this season was rained on, but he still made it through with a third place finish.
“It’s hard coming out here. It’s kind of a love-hate deal. If you run good you love it, if you don’t, you hate it,” said Green with a laugh. “We started seventh and the car was good the first half of the race. We stayed right on the bottom on the center of the corner. We stayed right with the 121 [Daniel Hemric]. Halfway through it just slid off the bottom because my front tires gave up grip I guess.”
While the dreary weather lowered spirits considerably, the Pro drivers will be back again next week in hopes of a rain-free day for Round Six of the ten race Shootout Series.
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Jordan Penninger finally claimed the winner's trophy he thought he should have had back a few weeks. (LN Photo)
In round two of the 2008 Summer Shootout Series, Jordan Penninger drove his #7 Legends car to the Semi-Pro victory. Well, so he thought. While he crossed the finish line first, Lowe’s Motor Speedway officials decided to black flag him and the second-place driver for rough driving.
Three rounds later, Penninger was able to put the frustration of that night behind him by driving into victory lane on a wet track.
“It started off with the track a little wet. I had to take it easy,” said Penninger. “I was still pretty fast because I was being smooth with it. By the end of the race after the last little caution there was one groove a half groove up that was dry. I stayed within that groove and I could stay about full speed.”
With the track surface transitioning between wet and dry, the usually on-the-edge Semi-Pro racers struggled to keep moving under green-flag conditions. The multiple cautions benefited Sam McAuley, who used the choose rule multiple times to move his way up to the second position.
“It kept drying up every lap,” explained McAuley. “The outside line was starting to dry up because of the choose. I was able to gain a few rows each time. It was simple for me. A few times we wouldn’t run a lap and the caution would come out. They would move others back in front of me. I was just hanging on in the rain, driving up front.
“I would have had a caution to catch up to him (Penninger). He was hooked up. We were ok, but the 7 (Penninger) was hooked up tonight. It was still a good run.”
YOUNG LIONS: JUSTIN GRIMES SINGING IN THE RAIN AT LOWE’S ~ By Elgin Traylor
The rain may have kept some fans home, but it didn’t slow down Justin Grimes in the Legends Young Gun feature. It was clear right off the start of the race who was good and who wasn’t in the rain. Grimes started fourth in the feature and the road to the front was cleared on a lap-one restart when leaders Sean Shalvoy and Dylan Presnell got together going into turn one. The two slid off the track and out of the lead. For Grimes it was clear sailing the rest of the race for his first 2008 Shootout victory.
Austin Leitner (left) and Devin Jones (right) discuss the race in tech. (LN Photo)
“The car was great. That was the first time I raced in the rain. That was a blast,” said Grimes. “It’s almost like dirt tracking. You are sideways a lot.”
The rain made the playing field a little more even and some drivers took full advantage of it. Devin Jones ended up second and was really happy with his rain effort.
“Mom told me to never play in the rain, but this was cool,” said Jones. “It was a lot of fun. You just got to be smooth and easy on the throttle, just like you drive a regular street car. I had a lot of fun racing with Justin (Grimes). He is our teammate and it was just a great race.”
Austin Leitner had mixed feelings about the racing in the rain. Despite the rain and finishing third he still found a way to smile.
“It’s frustrating when you get a little loose and you get the car up out of shape and you can’t just drive it to the bottom,” said Leitner. “It’s fun and it’s going to happen sometimes and you just have to deal with it.”
PRO: PROS HANDLE THE RAIN WITH SKILL ~ By Meghan Dillner
While most of the cars were slipping and sliding due to the downpours that started late in the afternoon of Round Five of the 2008 Summer Shootout, the Pros lived up to their title of being the “Nation’s Best Drivers” by pulling off the track without a single yellow flag lap.
The drivers had to be extremely cautious on the slick track in order to pull this off and most were tip-toeing around at a much slower than usual pace, but Daniel Hemric was the driver that wasn’t afraid to run full-force. It paid off when he lapped nearly half the field and had about a half-track lead when he took the checkered after starting from the pole position.
Daniel Hemric mastered the wet weather Tuesday night. (LN Photo)
“In the heat race the track was soaked. It was pouring rain. The track was a lot different for the Main,” explained Hemric. “We noticed everyone was putting cut tires on and we debated about it a little bit. Dan Snyder left it up to me and I decided to leave the rain tires on because I got burned by it last year. We left them on and as soon as they dropped the green I knew we were going to be good. We just pulled away and kept it up front all night.”
While Hemric didn’t seem to mind racing in the rain, other drivers weren’t all too fond of the conditions despite of where they finished. This included the 06 of Chris Buescher, who came out of the race with a second place finish.
“It definitely rained. You slow down about 50mph,” joked Buescher. “It just wouldn’t turn in the center. Unfortunately, we don’t usually set up for rain. We were trying to hang in there a little bit. We ended up coming out second and that’s alright, but we were still half a track back so we have some work to do.”
