Dustin Delaney in his #39 machine at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Jamie Williams Photo)
Restart Melee Collects Delaney; Finishes 14th At NHMS
Post-Race Report
A lap 76 restart spelled disaster for Dustin Delaney in the Heluva Good Fall 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Friday evening. Delaney got collected in a restart gone wrong sending him to pit road to repair right front nose damage and ultimately sending him to the rear of the field. The race was shortened to 100 laps when it rained at the originally scheduled start time of 5 p.m. and was further shortened to 99 laps due to darkness. The team just ran out of time. They were able to salvage a 14th place finish before the checkers dropped.
“We had a good run going until that restart. Someone missed a shift and everyone slammed their brakes on and we got turned,” explained Delaney.
The No. 39 Delaney Infrastructure/CarDaddy.com Chevrolet only got five laps of practice Thursday afternoon before the team opted to change everything in the car. They discovered
a transmission issue when working on the car, but never had any track time before going out for time trials. Delaney turned a lap of 121.388 mph in qualifying to earn a 25th place starting position.
“Qualifying came and the car was not good. We did a little adjusting early in the race and the car was good. I have to hand it to these guys on the crew. They worked really hard all weekend and the car came around pretty good. We were really fast.”
Delaney pitted on lap 15 for fuel and adjustments and returned to the track for a lap 18 restart outside the top-20, but made it up to 18th before the next caution flew at lap 30. He continued to patiently make his way towards the front and was running 15th at lap 63, the race’s originally scheduled halfway distance. Delaney gained two more spots before the lap 76 restart that collected the No. 39 Delaney Infrastructure Chevrolet.
“It was just a bad weekend,” said Delaney. “We were in the back with 20 to go so that’s a lot of ground to make up in a little amount of time. Everything we had gained in the race up until that point just disappeared. It was like starting all over.”
Delaney rallied in the closing laps and went from 20th, where he was on a lap 81 restart to 14th when the checkers dropped at lap 99.
One race remains in the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Series East with Delaney currently seventh in the point standings. The team will compete next at Dover International Speedway on Friday, September 25th in the Sunoco 150. For more information on Dustin Delaney or Delaney Motorsports, visit www.dustindelaney.com.
