Elliott Survives Wild Night at Delaware

The David Elliott Racing Team pulled into Delaware for the PartSource 142 hoping to turn their luck around after brake problems led to a terrible race two weeks ago.

“We changed pads, rotors, fluid…just about everything associated with the brakes,” explained David.

In practice, the #37 Pennzoil Impala looked like it was back to its old form. David was turning laps within two tenths of a second of the fastest cars. However, in qualifying David’s brakes locked up on both laps.

“I just didn’t push the car hard enough in practice and so I didn’t have the brake ratio set right” said David.

A minor in-car adjustment and the Pennzoil Impala lined up 15^th on the starting grid for the 142-lap feature race. To make up for rainouts earlier this season, the race was divided into two 50-lap segments, then a final 42-lap segment.

Early in the first segment, David’s father, Gary , pounded the inside wall on the front straight…it was a sign of things to come. The first two segments saw caution after caution and also included a 45-minute red flag when the #44 ended up balanced on its side atop the front straight wall and the #5 of Kyle Delisle .

Throughout all the carnage, David avoided any major contact, only having to pit once to remove a side rub rail which had been knocked loose. He then carefully moved his way forward. When the first caution/checkered flags came out on lap 50, David had rebounded up to 11^th place.

The second 50-lap segment (which had to be shortened to 25 laps due to the time taken to complete the first 50 laps) saw more cautions, but again, David kept his car out of harm’s way and moved up to finish in 7^th place.

The team changed both rear tires for the final 42-lap segment. With fewer cars left on the track to run into one another, there were fewer cautions in the final segment. The #37 Pennzoil Impala hovered between 7^th and 10^th place. David took advantage of a late-race restart and reclaimed the 7^th position at the end of the night.

“We had a top-10 car,” said David, “but we weren’t good enough to run for the win.”

The car survived the night and with each segment counting as a complete feature, David’s 11^th, 7^th and 7^th place finishes have moved him up into 10^th place in the Delaware points.

The team has next weekend off and will return to Delaware on Friday, July 10^th, and then Sauble on the 11th weather depending! Hope to see you there!