Dustin Delaney struggled all day at Music City Motorplex in his bid to win the Rookie-of-the-Race in the NASCAR Camping World Series East’s Strutmasters.com 150. Still, the 18-year-old’s determination prevailed, and despite a loose handling racecar, Delaney matched his career best and posted an 11th place finish.
“We just plain missed it tonight,” said crew chief Jamie Aube. “We struggled from the moment we unloaded this car and never really got it. We couldn’t get it tight enough. I guess it was just a poor choice of cars to bring here.”
Amidst some of the hottest temperatures of the season, Delaney went out for qualifying and posted a speed of 105.513 mph (20.335 seconds) for a 26th place starting position.
When the green flag dropped, Delaney dropped back to the tail end of the field to size up what he had to work with. On lap 10, Delaney decided it was time to get going and went underneath the #58 of Richard Gould for a spot. He immediately set his sights on the 17 car and used the bottom groove to drive by for yet another position.
Delaney’s battle with Gould was hardly over, however. On lap 16, Gould was riding the back bumper of Delaney’s #39 Delaney Infrastructure Chevrolet when contact was made. Delaney spun and collected Gould in the process as the two backed it into the wall.
“He drove right into the back of me,” said Delaney. “I don’t understand that because, one, it was so early in the race and two he wrecked himself in the process. That’s racing though and I wasn’t going to worry about that. We didn’t have any damage to our car so we were able to continue on without a problem.”
Delaney went a lap down as a result of the accident, but gained his lap back from the beneficiary rule at lap 27. The Mayfield, N.Y. native kept plugging, but went a lap down to the leaders on lap 49.
Delaney kept his focus on the task at hand: bring home the best possible finish. Again, Delaney gained his lap back by virtue of the beneficiary, and by lap 106, Delaney had broke into the top-20.
Cautions littered the last 50 laps of the race, but Delaney was still able to work his way up to 11th before the checkers dropped. Following the race, Delaney was evaluated by EMTs in his hauler from the carbon monoxide fumes in the car.
“The EMTs gave him some oxygen and he was fine,” said car owner Tim Delaney. “He wasn’t feeling so well when he got out of the car so we thought it would be better to be safe and have him checked out.”
“It’s always a good day when you can finish in the top-15 and take the car home in one piece,” said Dustin. “This was a total team effort. The guys threw everything at the car that they could, and I gave 110 percent out there on the track. We’re happy with this finish.”
For more information, contact:
Penny Aicardi
(508) 234-8684
PennyBNS@aol.com
