It had been a 42 days since Jarrett was last able to take the track for a Main Event. Three races had passed in that time with a few off weekends sprinkled in between. The team had showed up to all three races with every intention of going out and racing that night, but every race seemed to present a new problem, including last weekend when the engine blew coming to the white flag of the Heat race. But, one thing you’ll quickly learn about Jarrett and this team is that there is no giving up.
With a motor borrowed from Kevin Keefer Racing, Jarrett and his dad, Steve, went out to practice at Canyon Friday night to see if they had finally gotten things all figured out. They made 4 runs and the car was still having issues. They enlisted the help of Dale Eliason and with him and his son, Dale Eliason Jr, they worked on the car until midnight. They believed that they had at the very least figured out some issues, but no one would really know until the car hit the track.
On Saturday morning, they made the final adjustments and were ready to head out to Canyon Speedway Park for the Father’s Day Classic where the Power 600 Series would be running on the larger 3/8th’s mile track.
Jarrett’s first time on the track would come during hot laps and the car seemed to be running well. Jarrett would come back to the pits and make one adjustment to the car and get ready for his heat.
Jarrett ended up drawing a high number in pill draw earlier in the day, which would place him in the back of the 6 car field for Heat 1.
On the start, Jarrett would quickly move up to 4th before entering turn 1. The field would quickly get strung out and there was no other passing to be had, so Jarrett would end up finishing the quick 6 lap Heat in 4th.
Jarrett ended up 5th in passing points from the Heat races and with the top 6 being inverted, he would start outside pole for the 20 lap Feature.
Jarrett would talk things over with Steve and they would make one more small adjustment between the Heat and the Feature.
On the start, Jarrett would get beat by the pole sitter, Mason Keefer, for the lead heading into turn 1, but Jarrett would pull even with him in the middle of turn two and they would race down the back stretch side by side. Jarrett would throw a slider in turn 4 and clear Keefer to lead lap 1. Keefer wouldn’t give up easily though, challenging Jarrett for the lead in turns 3 and 4 on lap two. Jarrett was able to fight out the challenge and would begin to pull away from the field and extend his lead every lap. He would eventually pull out to a lead that was just under 4 seconds, before having an issue with a lap car that would allow for 2nd place, now being held by Paul Martin, to cut into his lead by about a second. With 6 laps to go, Jarrett’s lead would evaporate as a multi car wreck would bring out the red flag. Jarrett would nail the restart with 6 to go and again would extend his lead every lap. Jarrett would cross the finish line as the checkers waved with just under a second lead.
The past 42 days have been full of frustration, but Jarrett, his Dad and everyone around this team hasn’t let that stop them from continuing to push forward and that’s why they found themselves parked on the front stretch Saturday night at Canyon.
Thank you to the Eliason’s and Keefer’s for helping us out and getting us on the track this weekend. Thank you to Streaker Racing, K Corp, MyRacePass, Sutton Signs, Invision Auto Body and The Race Shack for all of your support.
The team has the next two weekends off before heading over to California for CA Speedweek. We will be running both the Super 600 and Non-Wing divisions starting July 5th through the 9th, with an off day on the 7th.
Please check out our partners at:
Streaker Racing: https://www.facebook.com/StreakerRacing
K Corp: http://karbercorporation.com
Sutton Signs and Apparel
MyRacePass: http://www.myracepass.com/
DW Promotions
Invision Auto Body: http://invisionautobody.com
The Race Shack: https://www.facebook.com/racersare1/?fref=ts
- Darren Ward on Jun 20, 2016
- Article Date: 6/20/2016 by DW Promotions