Comments: Coming into today's racing, we had high hopes that our chassis changes would give Rob the feel and handling back that he lost two weeks ago.

Comments: Warmer temps for a change today made the track a bit greasier than it has been all year. The car was 3rd quickest in practice, but the handling is a tick off. During the heat race, the car was worse, so changes were made because something has to be done. When the car's handling is close to being spot on, there's a lot of thinking on what can/should be done. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see if we went in the right direction for the feature. One thing that's a factor tonight is NEMA and NEMA Lite rubber being laid down before us.

Feature was not great and wasn't terrible. The NEMA rubber was a non-issue since there were a few races before ours. First caution came with 31 laps to go when the 78 and 98 wrecked on the front chute and Rob restarted 8th. Next caution came with 16 laps to go and Rob restarted 7th. There was some good hard racing up front, but we just didn't give Rob the car to move forward more tonight. We've got a few ideas on what we can change to get the handling back, so we look forward to getting to the shop and making changes before we return next week.

Comments: Overcast weather conditions resulted in the track being slower this week for all racers. Adjusting to the new track conditions (Wed. night races scrubbed the Saturday rubber off - making cars tight on entry) is like a chess match - it's easy to dial yourself out, but it's worth the gamble to see if we can make the car better. We tried something and ran the third practice and it made the car worse. We're treating the heat like another practice session to see if changes result in a better handling chassis. Heat race was uneventful....track still didn't have much grip so changes will need to be made by all.

First caution came with wreck on the back chute when the 78 and 57 wrecked hard into the back chute wall - Rob cleared the wreck down low to end up in a 4th place restart position with 28 laps to go. Next caution came with 23 laps to go when the 21 and 73 spun - restarted 5th. Another wreck came with 16 laps to go and Rob restarted 2nd outside the 27 who was the leader. The next restart looked pretty good, but the officials thought 51 fired early so the start was called back. One lap didn't get completed before another spin so we had another restart in 2nd. The next start was OK and rob and the 27 got some room to run and Rob was working the 27 hard with no pressure from behind.....going down the front chute, Rob got a wheel inside and the pair raced into the turn with Rob down below the white line trying to give the 27 room...but the 27 came down...contact was made in his left rear quarter and he spun...Rob braked hard to try to let the 27 save it, but then there was contact with the right front and both cars pitted. Our right front outer tie rod end was broken, so we replaced it and got back out onto the track just before the race went green and Rob only picked up one position before the checkered flag flew since the field had a half a track lead at the start. Tough night because a driver races hard to win, not to finish 2nd unless the winning car is faster. We look forward to next week.

Comments: Practice rounds showed that we got the car back to where it needed to be after last weeks wreck/damage. Rob was fastest SK Modified during today's practice rounds by turning a 14.172 second lap. Two heats are scheduled and top tier of handicapping is given to the top 4 finishers in each 10 lap heat. Heat race was pretty good....Rob ran hard and powered off the turns to get inside advantages and won the heat race.

The feature lineup appeared to be a challenge before the race began. You could drive yourself crazy guessing what might have happened. When the green flag flew, our worst guess came true and the inside lane went backwards, but a caution came on the first lap when the 27 and 78 somehow ended up in the turn 1 wall. The next restart wasn't that great and the caution came on lap 4 and Rob restarted 6th (lane didn't look promising). Next caution came with 27 laps to go Rob restarted 6th after getting taken backwards to about 10th. That can be VERY frustrating for a driver, but Rob channeled his frustration into hitting his marks and making moves on one car at a time to advance back to the front. Next caution came with 12 laps to go and Rob restarted 4th. The final caution came with 10 laps to go and Rob restarted 3rd after some hard racing. Rob chased the 88 of Rocco but found that the 51 was a tick free in the middle of the turns and Keith was spot on and Rob couldn't close on the 88 who finished by a few car lengths and the 51 was about a half a chute lead on the rest of the field. Lap times showed that Rob and Keith Rocco were top two cars in terms of speed tonight by besting the rest of the field by over 1/10th of a second/lap. We'll take the 2nd place podium finish after last week's wreck and look to come back again stronger.

Comments: Practice rounds were fairly good today - we had some room for tuning to make the chassis better. Heat run was OK...no place to go with side-by-side racing in front so settling into a 4th place top tier qualifying position was fine. No lap times today given technical difficulties with the transponder today. We'll look forward to the feature.

Feature started out OK....but there was trouble ahead as the 73 got crossed up coming out of turn 4 in front of Rob who braked hard to avoid him....but then Rob got hit in the rear and the car that made impact tore the rear end out of the car to take the 51 out of the race for our 2nd DNF of the 2012 season. We'll be back next week as fast as ever....

Comments: Feels good to put the car back on the track after a wreck and to have it fast. Lap times backed up the feel as Rob was quickest in practice. Heat was OK....won it, but the car was a tad off and we're adjusting for feature.

Feature started out OK....Rob had to be patient and wait for openings to come before he could make moves. The first caution came with 20 laps to go and Rob restarted 8th....seemed like a lot of work/racing for a 2 spot gain since the beginning of the race. There was contact between the 56 and 78 and the 78 spun to the infield and the 56 was put to the rear with 5 laps to go and Rob restarted 4th. It was then a race to the checkered and the 88 of Rocco got the lead from the 32 who finished 2nd and Rob got the advantage on the 27 to bring home a 3rd place podium finish. The car was a tick off, so we've got some work to do on the chassis handling before Rob will be happy.

Comments: Great weather except the night time late feature will be run in cold race conditions which can make for a lot of wrecks due to lack of grip. We ran one practice on old tires and Rob liked the car and skipped the 2nd practice. The heat race was pretty good as Rob quickly got into a top tier qualifying position by staying in 4th or better after the start. Rob ran in 3rd for a while, but when a restart came with 6 laps to go, Rob found himself in 2nd and it was hard to stay behind the 21 who was in the lead....so Rob made an inside move for the lead with 2 laps left in the heat race and never looked back.

Feature started well and the car was fast. Rob was patient as the cars up front were battling for position. Rob had a nice move coming out of turn 4 on the 15 to make the pass and he was clear by 2 car lengths coming out of turn 2 when all hell broke loose. The 15, 27 and 32 got tangled up and all 3 sustained heavy damage after hitting the wall (the wall actually broke and had to be repaired) and that mess brought out an extended red flag. The race resumed and another caution came with 17 laps to go and Rob restarted 5th. Another quick caution came and same deal, Rob restarted 5th with 16 laps to go.

I'm not sure what happened going into turn 3, but the 88 of Rocco came down into Rob and the contact cut down the right rear tire and broke the right front outer tie rod sending the 51 into the pits. We almost got the repairs done before the race resumed, but they went green by the time we were ready to roll. No caution came before the checkered, so we were dealt our first DNF of the season.