Breakaway Turns into Breakout
Short-pit strategy helps Shelby Howard pick up first
Hooters Pro Cup win
Jennerstown, Pa.—With Benny Gordon in another zip code
during the first 100 laps of the Giant Food Stores 250
presented by Predator Performance, Shelby Howard’s Tony
Stewart Racing team decided to employ a different
strategy.
The
gamble paid off.
Howard, driver of the No. 20 Tony Stewart’s Original
Bar-B-Que Sauce Pontiac, came to pit road on Lap 84,
cycled into the lead when Gordon came in for service on
Lap 145 and beat Gordon to the checkered flag by .368
seconds en route to his first Hooters Pro Cup win.
“It’s
been awhile,” said Howard, a former ARCA winner and
open-wheel standout. “We’ve been close several times,
and we finally put it together tonight. Hopefully, there
will be a bunch to follow.”
Howard’s choice not to follow Gordon proved to be the
turning point of the night.
Howard, along with many of the lead-lap cars, dove to
pit road and left Gordon alone on the track on Lap 84.
Howard brought the No. 20 Pontiac to pit road in fourth,
but his crew would send him off pit road ahead of all
the pitting cars.
“I
knew [Gordon] had a really good car, probably the best
one here,” said Howard. “I was worried about the
decision [to short-pit] at first, but I knew how hard it
was for us to get through traffic, so I knew he was
going to have a hard time.”
Even
with 100 laps on his BFGoodrich Tires g-Force radials,
Gordon’s No. 66 Predator Performance Ford showed no
signs of slowing down. But as he pulled away to more
than a two-second lead near the halfway mark, Gordon
began to realize his decision could be costly.
“Older
tires were faster,” said Gordon. “Looking at it now, if
we’d a pitted on Lap [84], come out with the lead and
run our on line, maybe it would have worked out for us.
“We
would have had to run 170 laps on that second set of
tires, and I was concerned with that. We wanted to have
fresher tires at the end, but we know better than that.
Track position is everything here. If I’d of blown back
through the pack and won the race, it would have been
perfect.”
It
nearly was.
With
100 laps remaining, Gordon restarted eighth after his
pit stop. Gordon quickly moved into fifth behind Jody
Lavender. But for nearly 30 laps, Gordon was unable to
slip past the No. 84s Lavender Motorsports Ford,
allowing Howard and Bobby Gill to stretch the lead up
front. Gordon finally made his way past Lavender at the
200-lap mark, but he was 3.9 seconds behind the leader,
and his next pass would be just as tough.
Gordon
battled for third with Johnny Rumley, driver of the No.
8 GORTECH Global Fabrication Chevrolet, for nearly 20
laps before making it around with 15 laps remaining.
While
Gordon was marching to the front, Gill, driver of the
No. 06s USG Sheetrock Brand Ford, began to apply
pressure to Howard for the top spot after several
late-race restarts. But after a few laps of green,
Gill’s efforts were futile. Howard was able to fend off
each attempt, and Gill fell into the clutches of Gordon
with 10 laps to go.
Gordon
pulled under the three-time Pro Cup champ on Lap 243,
but a caution flag negated the pass, leaving Gordon
three laps to pass two cars. Coming to the white flag,
Gordon swept under Gill to take second, but time ran out
on his bid to win for the second time this season.
“I’m
pretty disappointed we had a fast car and did not win.
Actually, I’m ticked about that, but we gave it our all.
It was a good [points] night for us,” said Gordon, who
stretched his point lead to 118 over Jeff Agnew. “We
needed green-flag laps to win this thing.”
Howard, however, wasn’t quite as sure if more laps would
have changed the outcome.
“The
cautions may have helped us, but I don’t know; there was
still stuff left in our car at the end,” said Howard.
“The car was loose after our pit stop, but, once we
burnt some fuel off, it came around.”
Gill
finished third and was the highest-finishing Southern
Division invader.
“We
accomplished what we wanted,” said Gill, who was using
the out-of-division start as a test for the Championship
Series. “It’s a brand new car with a front end we ain’t
ever messed with. So to come here run third and not tear
anything up was a good night. We’ll go home, work on it
and get ready for Lakeland.”
Johnny
Rumley, who won at Kil-Kare two weeks ago, came home in
fourth.
In his
third start at Jennerstown, Jody Lavender was able to
pick up his first top-five finish.
“We
got too tight there at the end of the run,” said
Lavender, a Southern Division regular. “Jennerstown is a
place I don’t have a lot of laps at, so it was good all
around to come up here and get our car straightened out.
This is the first time I haven’t had problems here and
it should help us in the Championship Series.”
Jack
Bailey, A.J. Frank, Eric Corbett, Mart Nesbitt and
Lonnie Rush Jr. completed the top 10.
The
Giant Food Stores 250 featured two lead changes among
two drivers and was slowed 13 times for 49 laps of
caution.
Giant Food Stores 250 Notebook
Cosmic Forces
Gary
St. Amant, driver of the No. 72 JEGS.com Chevrolet,
can’t seem to catch a break this season. Despite running
in the top 10 all season, it seems cosmic forces have
kept the short track legend down. That was the case
again in the Giant Food Stores 250.
St.
Amant started 13th and ran in the top 10
before being collected in an accident on Lap 104,
dropping him to 31st in the finishing order.
Underlying Current
If
there’s a common theme to the Northern Division season
so far, it has to be the emergence of Jack Bailey. The
first year Pro Cup driver seems to always end up near
the front of the field. It took longer than normal at
Jennerstown, but the No. 93 Ferguson Waterworks/RHR Ford
made it to sixth at the finish.
“We
had a drive shaft come off after qualifying and had to
start at the back of the field,” said Bailey. “I told
the guys ‘we had to pick the night with the most cars of
the year to come from the back.’ I was able to dodge
some wrecks, and everything was on our side. We didn’t
have that great of a car, but we kept adjusting on it.
I’m definitely satisfied with a sixth-place finish.”
Love-Hate
Racers
will fight for every inch of the race track while
battling for the win, but they are also known for
lending helping hands to competitors. Most of the time
it’s the use of spare parts, but Todd Gordon, crew chief
for Benny Gordon and owner of GORTECH Global
Fabrication, took it one step further.
Gordon
sponsored Northern Division rival Johnny Rumley’s car in
the Giant Food Stores 250. Rumley didn’t roll over when
Benny Gordon caught him late in the race, and that’s the
way it should be.
Making the Most of the Moonlight
Brett
Butler, driver of the No. 99s Aaron’s Dream Machine and
a regular in the Southern Division, spent the night
moonlighting in the Giant Food Stores 250 and was the
highest-finishing rookie, picking up $1,000 for being
the Miller Lite Rookie of the Race.
“It’s
nice to get the rookie of the race,” said Butler. “It’s
our first time here, and our first Northern race. I
couldn’t tell the difference in divisions. I think both
are the toughest divisions in racing. We had a good
night and learned some things that will help us later in
the year.”
Not
so Blue
Mart
Nesbitt, driver of the No. 88 Blue Cross Blue Shield of
N.C., has seen his fair share of bad luck this season,
posting just one top-15 finish, but Nesbitt broke out of
the early-season slump and notched a top-10 finish at
Jennerstown.
“We’d
planned on getting top-10’s all season, but we hadn’t
been able to stay on the lead lap because of breaking or
crashing,” said Nesbitt. “Car was pretty good, not
great. It could hold its own wherever it was. It wasn’t
the best night, but we’ll take it.”
Southern Twang
The
Giant Food Stores 250 was peppered with seven Southern
Division regulars using the race as a test for the
Championship Series event at Jennerstown later in the
year. But, while Bobby Gill and Jody Lavender had solid
runs, two heavy hitters from the South exited early.
Shane
Huffman, driver of the No. 88s Champion/US NAVY/Snap-On
Chevrolet, and Clay Roger, driver of the No. 44s
Automotive Development Group Ford, both experienced
mechanical failures and finished 35th and 32nd,
respectively.
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