News Director 
Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR – WEEDSPORT, NY – The HBR team recorded three top-five finishes this past weekend in New York.
The weekend got underway at Brewerton Speedway Friday night for the HBR team.
“We started eighth in our heat race,” Phelps said. “We had a really decent qualifying effort. The track was a little better this week so we were able to move around better.” Phelps crossed the line in second.
Phelps started the main event on the outside of the eighth row. “The feature we really didn’t catch the breaks like we needed to get to the front to be a threat,” Phelps said. “We got up to sixth then there was a yellow. We were good enough to move up a little further. We got hung up with a group of cars and were really never able to break through.”
Max McLaughlin drove through the heat race Friday night and qualified fourth from his seventh-place starting spot.
“We started sixteenth and got involved in a wreck on the first lap,” McLaughlin said. “We pit and went back out to run around for points.”
Despite some front-end damage on the No.6 machine, McLaughlin was able to cross the line in 15th in the main event.
The team closed out the weekend on Saturday at Fulton Speedway.
“We had a really good car in hot laps then we made a couple of adjustments to try some things in the heat and really got out to lunch,” Phelps noted. “We got behind in the beginning of the heat trying to miss a little jingle. We never were able to get anywhere in the heat race.”
Phelps crossed the line where he started – in eighth.
Phelps and the crew regrouped for the feature and started 22nd.
“The car was really good,” he noted. “We drove up to fourth. From that point everything just evened out. We needed to be a little better the last ten laps but by then everyone strung out pretty good.”
Considering how Phelps night started, him and the team were very happy with their results and were satisfied with their fourth place finish.
Teammate McLaughlin qualified third in his heat from fourth.
McLaughlin started the main event on the inside of the fifth row.
“We fell back to twelfth on the original start,” McLaughlin said. “The track was really slick bottom to top because the sprint cars were there.”
McLaughlin was able to find the right groove to carry enough momentum through the center of the track.
“We got to third and had a really good car,” mentioned McLaughlin. “By the time we got to third the leader was a straightaway ahead. We didn’t have enough time.”
McLaughlin netted his first podium finish at his Saturday night track.
“We’re looking forward to carrying the momentum into next week,” McLaughlin said.
The team will return to action on Friday at Brewerton Speedway, Saturday at Fulton Speedway and on Sunday at Five Mile Point Speedway with the Super DIRTcar Series.
