|
|
MITCHELL
CRASHES WHILE LEADING POCONO 200
LONG POND. PA (JUL 27) ........ West Virginia driver Richard
Mitchell
suffered through a frustrating Saturday afternoon at The Pocono
Raceway,
crashing his Coach USA / Mountaineer Gaming / West Virginia
Tourism Pontiac
Grand Prix into the first turn wall during The ARCA RE/MAX 200
just after
taking the lead in the race.
The West Virginia University graduate had just passed series
point leader
Frank Kimmel for the lead coming down the front straight of the
2.5 mile
tri-oval on lap 52 when the rear end of his car broke loose and
sent him
careening into the wall.
"Kimmel broke his motor a lap earlier, and I could see oil on
his car,"
Mitchell said,
"I passed him just past the start/finish line and went into turn
one on my
normal line. The car just jumped loose, and went into the
wall. I don't
know if there was oil on the track...... but the car just slid
out from under
me."
Mitchell, a two-time NASCAR Northeast regional champion was
credited with a
27th place finish, but looked back at what could have been.
"I don't know if we could have won, Casey (Atwood - a NASCAR
Winston Cup
regular) just ran down everyone at the end of the race and blew
by them.
With Winston Cup tecnology behind him, he was racing in another
zip code .
He would have caught us too, but I think we were in a great
position for
another top-three finish," Mitchell said.
Mitchell again used a pair of lighning fast pit stops to place
himself in
contention for the Pocono victory.
"We were running ninth when we made our first pit stop, and our
crew got us
out fifth," Mitchell added, "on our second stop we decided to
use a fuel-only
strategy to put us in position to run the rest of the way. We
felt the tire
wear was minimal, so we rolled the dice to gain track position.
I can't say
enough about my over-the-wall guys..... they are as fast as
anyone in ARCA,
and they only do it on a part-time basis, running a limited
schedule."
The end result was disappointing, but Mitchell took it in
stride. "Racing is
a tough business; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose," he
said, "all you
can do is go out and give it a one hundred percent effort every
time and live
with what happens."
Next up for the Mac Hill Motorsports Coach USA team is the
NASCAR BUSCH
Series event at the Michigan Int. Speedway on Aug. 17.
|
|
|
