Top 30 Locked in to Snowball

[Jane]

LOCKED IN (unofficially)



1.#83 Cale Gale 16.982

2.#17 Chris Gabehart 17.016

3.#14 Ken McFarland 17.019

4.#22 Matt Hawkins 17.021

5.#54 Johnny Clark 17.027

6.#44 Gary Helton 17.059

7.#8 Cassisus Clark 17.079

8.#72 Eddie Mercer 17.09

9.#38H Josh Hamner 17.11

10.#86 Mike Fritts 17.114

11.#82 Grant Enfinger 17.13

12.#39 Ryan Sieg 17.134

13.#47 Brian Campbell 17.148

14.#10C Ryan Crane 17.161

15.#92 Jeff Choquette 17.163

16.#112 Augie Grill 17.167

17.#1M Tim Martin 17.176

18.#84 Wayne Anderson 17.178

19.#72 Scott Hantz 17.187

20.#21 Scott Carlson 17.209

21.#27 Jason Young 17.219

22.#11 Donald Long 17.229

23.#67 Jeff Fultz 17.23

24.#7 Gary St. Amant 17.232

25.#31 Ryan Lawler 17.238

26.#12 Justin Drawdy 17.247

27.#91 Heath Hindman 17.254

28.#18 Hunter Robbins 17.279

29.#98 Billy Tutchtone 17.285

30.#30 Dave Mader III 17.293


OUTSIDE THE TOP 30



31.#99S Casey Smith 17.297

32.#48 Cecil Chunn 17.311

33.#33 Richard Fincher 17.313

34.#10 Ryan Foster 17.316

35.#66 Steven Wallace 17.325

36.#24 JR Roahrig 17.327

37.#73 Corey Ruble 17.341

38.#51 Kyle Busch 17.369

39.#11 David Rodgers 17.37

40.#1 Benny Gordon 17.375

41.#5 Bobby Gill 17.381

42.#10 Danny Bagwell 17.382

43.#8 Roger Reuse 17.393

44.#29 Trevor Sanborn 17.406

45.#1 Stephan McCurlely 17.411

46.#49 Stanley Smith 17.441

47.#3 Matt Merrell 17.443

48.#0 David Hole 17.469

49.#99 Wayne Niedecken Jr. 17.542

50.#99L Dale Little 17.616

51.#2 Clay Rodgers 17.626

52.#14 Adam Crawford 17.662

53.#45 Dwayne Buggay 17.687

54.#9 Justins Marks 17.705

55.#87 John Webb 17.863

56.#9 Kurt Jett 18.031

57.#83 Trevor McKinley 18.934

[mr south 59]

Gabehart and McFarland already DQ'ed in tech. They are teching the top 35 cars.

Sorry to hear that about Chris Gabehart. I have known him and his family for many years. They are very strong competitors. He will probily race his way in.

But then again, it is good to see another one of our competitors running good. Matt Hawkins.

[Frasson118]

Pretty good showing by our Florida guys. Mike Fritts will srart 8th, Jeff Choquette 13th, Wayne Anderson 15th, and Justin Drawdy 24th.

Assuming they all clear the tech line.

Those tech guys at 5 Flags don't mess around. An 1/8 of an inch here, a 1/4 of an inch there, and you are tossed, no matter WHO you are. Apparently they pissed off last years winner, Johnny Brazier, to the point that he didn't even enter this year. He got DQ'ed last year for being .3 of 1 percent off on his left side weight percentages, even though he could prove that the damage done to his car during the race had shifted the percentages. The tech guys didn't budge and they took the trophy right out of his hands. They even pulled the tag from the trophy that already had his name on it, while they were handing the trophy to Clay Rogers.

Cale Gale has been fast since unloading. He has a part-time "development deal" with Childress. Lets see if that turns into anything more, or if he gets bounced at some point for some Indy driver, an F-1 driver, or Austin Dillon (his own Granson). I think you know what my prediction is!

Another great performance by Matt Hawkins too. I've been saying for 2 years this kid has a ton of talent, and he showed it again.

Gabehart sounds pretty ticked off and may not even try to race his way into the Derby.

Clay Rogers has lost his regular ride, for the second year in a row while he was at the Derby. Last year his Hooters team shut down, and this year his Craftsman Truck team shut down. He was informed this morning by a phone call. He had been drivivng the Wayne Spears owned/Spears Mfg. #75 (that Billy Bigley also drove for, among a bunch of others over the years). If I remember correctly, this is one of the original teams in that division when it was formed, and has been in every single Craftsman Truck series race in their history. Prior to that, the Spears team ran in the Nascar Southwest Tour and the Winston West series. They probably have been at it for over 25 years now, and it's a shame to see them close the doors and turn out the lights.

New England is known mainly as Modified territory, but those Late Model guys up there are as good as anyone in the country. Cassius Clark and Johnny Clark (who are not related) both qualified near the top of the charts.

Speed51 has done a GREAT job in there coverage, giving almost minute-by-minute updates. It's not like being there, but for those of us that can't make it, I appreciate how well the information has flowed from there.

Rick... how about doing the same from the Florida 400?

[Snowball]

I'm not a tech man by any means, but just to clarify that Brazier was more than .3 of 1 percent off on his left side weight last year. I can't remember exactly, but I believe it was 2% and they allowed 1%...................I think. it's been so long ago, that I'm not positive. The damage on his car was to the left rear and that would have actually shifted the weight over to the right instead of the left. Also, I believe that Gabehart was 1 " off. I also hate it for him because he is a super nice guy and a hell of a driver.

[JackTripper]

I seem to recall that the GARC cars had a characteristic of weight moving more than usual as the car gets lighter and most teams knew to correct for that when setting up.

[Frasson118]

Here is the quote from which i got my information. I was wrong, but it was even closer than I thought. It was 1/10th of 1%:



“My left side was 58.2-percent and they said they allowed 58.1-percent,” said a numb Brazier while loading up his car in the infield on Sunday night. “That comes out to be about three pounds. After 300 laps, we were three pounds heavy on the left side.



“I don’t feel very good right now. I think I got a raw deal. Like I told (the officials), my car got hit in the left rear during the race. It got hit hard enough to knock my transponder off the car. It could have knocked the rear end over a little bit. If it knocked the rear end over even an eighth-of-an-inch, it would have picked up a ton of left side.


Teams await the decision made by officials in a closed-door meeting (top), but none were as tense as Johnny Brazier's team (bottom)
‘I just really feel like my rear end got moved over when I got hit out there. I have no control over that. I just won’t know until I get back to the shop. I just think I really got a raw deal. I mean, if I was going to cheat, I could have done it with more than one or two points of a percentage. This car was fast all weekend long. I didn’t need to cheat.”

[Snowball]

Actually after I made the above post and left for the track, i realized that what you said about the weight was correct. i wasn't thinking correctly. The correct weight in the rules is 58%, and like he said, the track allowed a .1% varience, and he was over unfortunately. There has to be a cut off point somewhere.....You know?

[Frasson118]

That's a damn hard call to make. One 1/10 of 1% percent infraction costing me $30K would rile me too. At the same time, would 5 or 10 LBS. of insurance make the difference between winning and losing? If you're set up right, and driving your ass off... I wouldn't think so.

For the life of me, I can't imagine that 3 Lbs. difference turns a loser into a winner. Buddy Baker was no less of a racer than Mark Martin, but I'd bet there is almost 75# difference in body weight alone!

If 3 pounds makes that much of a difference, tell your driver to skip a couple of Whoppers during race week!

[Edm]

Hey Frac,
Keep the info coming, I couldnt make it up there this year. Its a shame about Clay Rodgers truck ride. This guy can drive a car, I used to help him out in 2000 and have been keeping up on him ever since. Hows the weather?

[Snowball]

Believe me, I don't think it had anything to do with Brazier winning, but he was already over the "cushion" that they allowed. The actual rule is 58%, and unfortunately the rules have to be inforced because if you let this little thing go, then you have to let another little thing go, and pretty soon, everybody is expecting the tech guys to let all little infractions slide. If they stick to the rules and do it consistently, then I think it is OK...........JMO........

[bubba]

I would agree that the tolerances being enforced are tight, but no matter where you draw the line these guys will try to be just a little over. with the tech guys rep being so well known, I just wouldn't chance it on anything.

funny thing is, week in and week out I hear people on here griping about not having tough tech. it was actually one of the more entertaining things to go to the pits and watch them tech the snowflake cars before qualifying. it was real simple you don't pass, you get 1 more chance and you lose a qualifying lap.

I am a fan of how they handle tech here. no bs no matter who you are and everybody knew it before they got here.