After testing earlier in the week at New Smyrna, Austin and the crew liked their chances of a top 5 finish. “We found a ½ second during that testing session. It should put us right in the top 5 for qualifying” said Austin. It would soon become apparent that the team would struggle as the first time Austin hit the track, the ½ second was lost. After qualifying, Austin said, “We made a lot of adjustments, but just couldn’t get any faster. I tried to push it too hard in qualifying, and drove it in too deep, which caused the car to push up in the center and ended up qualifying 23rd out of 25…” Since it was an "impound race" the crew wasn't allowed to make any adjustments to the car until the race. During the race, Austin pitted a few times under caution so that the crew could try to improve the handling of the car. The adjustments helped some, and coupled with driving a clean race, Austin was able to make his way up to 11th place which was one position shy of winning the “Hard Charger” award.

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