After a good showing at Charlotte County Speedway, Austin and the crew were excited about coming to New Smyrna Speedway for the "Goodyear Challenge Late Model 100." The car handled good right out of the trailer, but it was obvious that it was lacking speed. After a few practices, Austin claimed that something was wrong with the engine, causing it to lack straight-away speed. The crew checked over everything, and couldn't find anything wrong with the engine. In qualifying, Austin qualified 18th out of 21. The crew was left scratching their heads, trying to find out what was wrong. Before the race, an Engine Builder took a look at the engine and he found that the timing of the motor was way off. Austin and the crew hoped that the problem was cured and went out for the race. At the start of the race, it appeared like it was going to be a long night because Austin seemed like he had the parking brake on. After about 20 laps, the rest of the cars started to wear out their tires, allowing Austin to catch back up. One by one, Austin steadily started gaining positions. With about 30 laps to go, Austin made a heroic move to drive onto the apron to go three-wide, in order to pass two cars that were beating and banging on each other. After Austin got by, chaos broke out behind him because those same two cars wrecked each other. Austin found himself sitting inside the top 10 and was on track to have a very solid finish. After a late race caution, Austin found himself running in 6th place as he crossed the finish line. Austin felt that the car was still a little bit off, but was happy with the finish. Hopefully Austin will be able to better this performance in two weeks, when the ASA Late Models Southern Series comes to town.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
FASCAR LATE MODEL CHALLENGE 100
NEW SMYRNA SPEEDWAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008
1. 5 M Daniel Keene Jr.
2. 9 M Rich Clouser
3. 05 M Jeremy Colangelo
4. 1 Jerry Symons
5. 4b M Alan Bruns
6. 11x Austin Kirkpatrick
7. 19x M Ray Black Jr.
8. 64 Terry Vaughn
9. 46x Matt Cohen
10. 60 M Chad Akins
11. 31 M Greg Kaouk
12. 19 M Chuck Abell
13. 13 J.R. Garcia
14. 47 M Davey Gibbs
15. 46 Doug Moff
16. 53 M Darren Brown
17. 141 M Travis Hanson
18. 2 M A.J Curreli
19. 26 M Jessica Murphy
20. 11 M Alexis Fenton
21. 57 M Joe Winchell
