Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – DUNDEE, NY – Several of the top running cars in the Short Track Super Series Dave Machuga Memorial at Outlaw Speedway Thursday night were forced pit side with misfortune.
The likes of Matt Sheppard, Bobby Hackel, Alex Payne and even Tanner VanDoren were all in position to have great runs, or even possibly winning runs, during the course of the 50-lap event.
Only VanDoren was able to recover, driving his #27 back to a seventh place finish at the end.
With the run of flat tires and cautions in the last half of the event, one driver who’d never raced at Outlaw before Thursday night, Jack Lehner, brought his Brett Deyo-owned #02 home second after starting in tenth.
“I fell back a little bit early,” Lehner said. “I then felt real good running the bottom and I was just trying to be patient.”
Having never run a feature at the Dundee, NY track, Lehner wasn’t sure what to expect.
“I kept looking at the lap counter and was just trying to save tires a little bit,” he said. “That strategy ended up working out. We had restarts when we needed them and I was in the right lane.”
Learning that his car worked well on the low lane really helped Lehner move forward in the 50-lap event as well.
“It seemed like we were one of the cars that could make a lot of ground way down on the bottom,” he said. “That helped but it’s always a good night when you can run second to Stewart. We’ll take it.”
Lehner studied the track all night long, even learning from the last chance qualifiers on how to set up his ride for the feature.
“I really didn’t know what the track was going to do,” he said. “I saw that Tanner (VanDoren) was still pretty quick in the consi so I tightened up our car a little bit. It was a little snug early, but as the track slowed down, it really came to us.”
Third at the finish was the most recent winner at Outlaw Speedway in weekly competition, Ajay Potrzebowski Jr. Potrzebowski started sixth and stayed among the leaders all race long and was rewarded with a podium finish.
“Our car was actually horrible in the beginning of the feature,” Potrzebowski said. “It actually came to us as the race went on.”
Tire selection played into his hands.
“We went with a harder tire tonight,” he said. “It came on late and actually my fresh air hose came off around halfway.”
That made things very interesting for Potrzebowski in the weaning laps.
“I couldn’t really see from lap 25 on,” he said. “I was trying to rub my eyes under cautions to get through it but this car was really good tonight.”
Having a home track advantage definitely helped Potrzebowski Thursday.
“In front of this hometown crowd, to run this well is really cool,” he said. “We were the top guy of the weekly Outlaw racers and we won last Friday night. We’re building on things, little by little, and running up front with these guys, it shows were heading the right way.”