Rookie Season Ends For Delaney With 14th Place Finish

Another Solid Run for the Rookie at Stafford

Dustin Delaney concluded his rookie season on the NASCAR Camping World Series East with a 14th place finish in the Carquest Fall Final 150 at Stafford Motor Speedway. Delaney piloted his #39 Delaney Infrastructure/Cars Under 10K Chevrolet from a 24th place starting position to post the finish, his fourth consecutive top-20.

“We were really tight the whole race. We were going to come in and pit to get straightened out with about 30 to go, but then we figured it might be a little too late to gain any positions so we decided to hang out and take what we had,” Delaney said.

Delaney’s crew changed the steering box on his Chevrolet prior to qualifying, but the young Mayfield, N.Y. native was forced to start the race from 24th after posting a lap of 20.118 seconds on Saturday afternoon.

“I wish we would have had a little later qualifying draw because those who went later in the session definitely had an advantage,” said Delaney. “Still, it is what it is. We changed the steering box in the car. Originally, we went from our 10:1 because I like a little quicker one because of the dirt cars I used to run. I was used to it. We put on another 12:1 box for qualifying and practice. We put on a new 10:1 after qualifying so we’re back to what we started with.”

Despite jumping ahead two positions at the start, Delaney was fighting a tight condition in the car from the drop of the green flag. He made it up to 18th by the time the race hit the lap 40 mark, but knew the car was

Dustin Delaney  (Jamie Williams Photo)

only going to get tighter as the race went on. A long green flag run didn’t give the team too many opportunities for a pit stop. After taking a restart at lap 43, the race went green until lap 103.

“We were really tight the whole race. We were going to come in and pit to get straightened out with about 30 to go, but then we figured it might be a little too late to gain any positions so we decided to hang out and take what we had,” said Delaney.

Delaney gained four more positions before the race conclusion and was one of only 17 cars to finish on the lead lap.

“The crew worked really hard today, and really hard all season long,” said Delaney. “I’m really proud of them. This was our first year and we came out of it with some solid runs and really learned a lot that we can apply to our season next year.”