Unfortunately, this would be a shortened Speedweeks for the Winstead Motorsports Team. A review of the week is listed below:
Friday (Day one) – Our car showed up late to the track and we were unable to practice, so we went out to qualify with zero track time. The 99 machine had a miss in the motor and was unable to make a qualifying run, which relegated the team to a 31st place starting position. The race wasn’t much better, however we managed to avoid two big crashes to finish 16th for the night.
Saturday (Day two)- The new car shows up….The team was planning on using this Speedweeks as a test for our brand new Stock Car Products chassis, and Saturday was the 1st time this car had seen any type of racetrack. Practice was spent adjusting a few items to get A.J. comfortable in the new ride. Since we were starting by points, the team rolled off in 16th position based on Friday nights finish. By lap 15 we were running 6th, but getting some pressure from the 36 of Nick Diano. Diano ended up spinning the 99 car when he ran into the 1st corner too hot. The resulting spin sent both cars to the rear of the field which negated Winstead’s charge from 16th to 6th. On the insueing restart Winstead repaid the favor to Diano, in which Diano ended up spinning around off of the 2nd turn. Winstead was parked for the evening for rough driving….oh well on to Sunday.
Sunday (Day three) The final day/night started off good with the SCP chassis setting 2nd quick time in practice after a few minor adjustments, behind former track champion Jerry Symons. During the second round of practice Winstead became loose and was hit by last year’s winner Tank Tucker in the #15 machine. The crash ended both the new SCP cars’ week as well as Tank Tuckers night. Both cars were towed off of the track and practice resumed. The Winstead Motorsports team went to work by exchanging the primary motor out of the new SCP chassis and moving it to the back-up car. Again with no practice laps the 99 team started at the rear of the field. By the halfway point of the race we were running mid pack. During a restart after a caution two cars came together in front of Winstead which he was able to slow up, to avoid, but the 55 car of Hite out of FL never checked up and careened the rear of Winstead’s backup car virtually destroying the back of the car of Winstead. That was it the end of the week…two cars in one day!
The only real redeeming quality of the week was that the new SCP was quick and this gave the team something to build on for the RTM 2009 season.
