TOP 15 FINISH FOR RUDOLPH AT NASCAR’S LATE MODEL MARTINSVILLE RACE

New South Wales driver, Dane Rudolph, has finished 15th in NASCAR’s Bailey 300 at the legendary Martinsville Speedway in the 85 strong field of the best Late Model cars and drivers America can offer..

Martinsville, Virginia. USA. 04/10/09:

The Baileys 300 has been known for many years as the ‘Daytona’ of NASCAR Late Model Stock Car racing. This year’s event was no different with 85 entries vying for the 42 lap feature race including recently crowned national champion, Phillip Morris, and a host of state, regional and track champions. The format of the event is that each car runs two individual qualifying laps with the fastest 22 automatically gaining entry to the feature race. The remaining field must race in one of four 25 lap heat races with the top five finishers from these heat races completing the field for the 200 lap $25,000 feature race.

Before qualifying, Dane in the Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet, had run some competitive practice times in the top ten. However his qualifying efforts did not reflect his recent form as he recorded only the tenth fastest time up to his run as the 35th car. This left 50 cars yet to run and a good chance that he wouldn’t make the 22 car automatic entry to the feature race. Tense times ensued as more cars completed their run and with only two cars remaining Dane was still in the top 22. But both of the last two cars eclipsed Dane’s time, including the Pole winner relegating him to 24th. This would mean that he would start on the pole for the second heat race. Not the pole he was looking for but still a positive result. To show how competitive this form of racing is, 15th through 54th qualifying times were covered by less than one tenth of a second!

Rudolph’s heat race started with Dane gapping the field to establish a healthy lead of 10 car lengths. Of course the inevitable caution eliminated that lead as the mid field runners fought over the elusive fifth position and entry to the feature. On the restart Dane made an uncharacteristic error by missing fourth gear due to a sticking gear selection mechanism. What ensued was a concertina effect resulting in a pile up at turn one. Luckily for Dane the field was re-gridded to reflect the last time they past the start finish line before the crash enabling him to restart on pole. Some damage to Dane’s left side was caused in the crash resulting in the left front guard and door hanging precariously. Over the final few laps this slowed the Outback sponsored car allowing another competitor to pass Dane resulting in a second place finish for the Australian driver. This would place Dane on the 28 starting position for the feature race.

The strategy for the feature race was to stay out of trouble and finish the event in front of the claimed 20,000 strong crowd. In past years this event has been about survival of the fittest, however from the green flag it seems that all of the competitors had the same strategy with the field of 42 settling down into a single line for a good percentage of the first half of the race. Inevitably some drivers became impatient and the fourth quarter of the first half became a wreckers truck delight with quite a few cars being consigned to the scrap heap. Dane managed to dodge a lot of bullets in this period until the inevitable happened on lap 80 when a gap closed whilst trying to avoid a major shunt just after the start line with the Outback car being slammed against the inside wall. This resulted in damage to the left front and rear suspension of the car as well as bending three wheels. But great work by the Sellers Racing crew had Dane back out on the track without going down a lap. Luckily there is a ten minute caution at 100 laps which enabled the crew to not only complete the necessary service requirements but straighten the car enough for Dane to complete the race as best he could.

Starting the second half in 20th position, Dane overcame the cars shortcomings to push forward. Once again the field ran a sold 67 lap green flag run with patience being shown by the remaining cars. As was shown in the first half this patience doesn’t last too long with a number of crashes giving the safety and cleanup crews plenty of work. At one stage Dane had managed to crack the top 10 before he again became a victim of somebody else’s crash which dropped him to 19th. But a fantastic drive saw Dane recover for an outstanding 15th at the chequer for this rookie driver at Martinsville. Subsequent inspection of the car revealed that the left front suspension had seized and the rear diff housing was bowed like a boomerang further underlining what a great drive Dane had completed.

Dane said, “I was really excited about just trying to qualify for this race. “After qualifying I was worried about the carnage that goes on in the heat races but I just put my head down hit my marks to get into the main event. This was like a full on NASCAR event with a huge crowd but I was so happy to have finished so well, although my car’s going to need more than a buff to get ready for the next race”. Team Owner, H.C. Sellers added, “We’re so happy with how Dane ran today, he really showed that he can compete with the best in this class”. Dane went on to thank the Outback Steakhouse who came on board for this and his next event at South Boston.

Danes next event is the Mason Dixon 500 at South Boston Speedway on October 15-17.