09/12/2026
Nats night 1 was a bit weird, but overall we had great speed. Hot laps felt good, was ready to qualify when the track suddenly had timing & scoring issues. Unfortunately this meant no one would be able to set Qualifying lap times, which was unfortunate as I really like laying it all out there in qualifying.
Instead we went by pill draw which put us staring 4th in heat #3. We'd get a a good start and get to 2nd, then reeled in the leader with this pass to take the lead coming to the white Flag. In the feature, we'd start 8th and were carefully starting to find a groove when something bizarre happened; the air cleaner mounting stud snapped off, which was messing with airflow and the throttle linkage, making the engine run really strange and inconsistent. One lap it'd be ok, another it felt like we only had half throttle. Being aware that I wasn't gonna hurt anything, I ran it as hard as I could and was able to finish 5th, but we were leaving a TON of speed on the table. Very strange.
Long story short, this was good enough for 5th in points tonight, locking us into tomorrow's Nationals A-Main! Stay tuned for more updates
