Winston-Salem, NC(May 8, 2012) — Coming off of his worst finish of the 2012 season at Richmond in 12th, Ronnie Bassett, Jr. returned to his previous form at Kingsport Speedway where a slip in qualifying, a tight track, 20 strong competitors and drivers with home track advantage couldn’t keep him out of victory lane.
Every season, there seems to be some driver in the UARA-STARS Series, who breaks out from the rest of the pack and begins to dominate the season and despite the challenges faced, that driver seems to overcome them all. Against all odds, Ronnie Bassett, Jr. overcame a host of challenges at Kingsport Speedway including the local talent, the track owners son, hitting a cone in qualifying and starting dead last.
It seems that sometimes, when it’s your day to shine …. there’s almost nothing that can keep you from shining. For Ronnie, Jr. the first obstacle was overcoming a track that he had always struggled at and even in testing leading up to the race, he didn’t feel good about coming to. It was just the beginning of challenges that would face the 16 year-old racer as his day would get worse before it got better.
After struggling through the Thursday practice sessions on old tires, just trying to get a good feel for the track, he did the same in the first of two practice sessions on Friday before putting on new ‘sticker’ tires for a mock qualifying run in the final practice. In that session, he proved to have a fast racer posting the third fastest time of the session, giving him and the Bassett Racing team plenty of reason to be confident heading into qualifying.
Kingsport Speedway is a total different animal from other race tracks that the UARA-STARS Series and it even comes with it’s own set of rules. The 3/8 mile concrete oval provides some of the tightest racing anywhere, but a rule in the UARA to allow access off of pit lane during the race has the series institute a yellow line rule, where cars can’t race or even qualify below the line in turns one and two. The rule has been controversial for years in the series and proved to be an achilles heel for the young driver in qualifying.
With cones set up against the yellow line to keep the cars above the line, Ronnie, Jr. clipped one of the cones on his last lap of qualifying and while he posted the fourth fastest time of the evening, he would get put to the rear of the field for touching the cone. With that he would go from starting fourth to starting 21st and leaving him knowing that he’d have to make the right moves at the right time to stay out of trouble on the tight tough bullring.
“This is not exactly where you want to start the race,” said Ronnie, Jr. as he stood beside his car before the race. “This track is one of the toughest tracks to pass on and starting back here puts us around where all the wrecks will happen. I’ve just gotta have faith that we’ll make it through the crashes and be in the right places and the right time to get up front and have a chance to get a good finish.”
Ronnie, Jr. knew that he had his work cut out for him, but the young driver recently had to do the same thing after spinning out on his qualifying lap at Rockingham Speedway and drove back to finish second. However, the big one-mile, Rockingham, NC and the tight confines of the Kingsport, TN speedplant had little in common.
Right from the drop of the green flag, Ronnie, Jr. and spotter, Richard Smith worked the traffic of the 21-car field like masters and quickly the youngster found himself up to 11th before lap 25. With ten cars now behind him and ten left in front of him, Ronnie, Jr., known to be one of the smartest drivers in the series, patiently passed each car one by one. He was up to fifth by the midpoint of the 150-lap race and from there, he took advantage of several cautions to put himself into the second position with 32-laps remaining.
On the next to last restart the leader used the inside line to his advantage and shoved Ronnie, Jr. up the track, but quickly the youngster fought back and on the following restart, which was the final one of the night on lap 143, he vaulted into the lead. He would lead the final six laps unchallenged until the final lap when the second place car tried desperately to get to his bumper or get by him, but crossed the line as the winner.
“Wow! I didn’t know for sure that we could come from last to first here,” said Ronnie, Jr. after the race. “This is a tough track to pass on and I just wasn’t sure given my past track record here that I could manage to stay out of trouble and get up to the front.”
Ronnie, Jr. did just that though as it seemed every time there was a wreck it was the cars right behind him and with that kind of luck, he found himself in position to challenge for the win.
“I knew when we got inside the top five that we could have a chance, but these UARA races are so tough to win. Passing the back half of the field was easy compared to the guys up front, but when you get inside the top five it’s the best drivers on the track. Those last couple of restarts were tough, but I can’t thank the team enough for giving me a car this good.”
Ronnie, Jr. had went from the rear of the field to first place in a 150-lap race on one of the toughest tracks on the UARA-STARS Series schedule, but one of the toughest moments in racing is going through technical inspection. On this night, after his third win in four races, the UARA officials would be tearing the car to the ground, looking for anything that might be giving the young driver an advantage.
From tearing the engine down to removing the seat, pulling the battery box out, searching the wiring harness and almost everything else you can think of, the UARA officials seemed determined to find something. After spending hours inspecting the items listed above, the UARA decided to disqualify the young driver, not over a part not being correct, but because they didn’t like the feel of it. The determined that the cylinder heads on Ronnie, Jr.’s Ford Crate Engine didn’t “feel right” and decided to disqualify him from the hard earned win.
Crew chief, Chris Lawson quickly filed an appeal of the decision and the UARA officials decided to send the cylinder head to Ford Motor Company for inspection. A final decision on the part in question will be decided sometime on Tuesday, May 8th. It was a hard blow after an up and down weekend at the track, but Ronnie, Jr. let his maturity do the talking while loading up on Friday night.
“Oh man, I can’t believe that it comes down to the feel of a part,” commented Ronnie, Jr. “My guys all work so hard in the shop, preparing these cars and getting them ready each week and we come out here and have to start last and still come out with the win. Then we get thrown out because they don’t like the way the head feels? I don’t know what to say.”
“I know that we didn’t do anything to the cylinder head,” concluded Ronnie, Jr. “I just hate this for my guys and for everyone’s hard work. I just hope that they make the right decision in the end, we worked too hard for this win to lose it this way. The fans got a show, I know they got their money’s worth on those last couple of restarts and I had a lot of fun.”
No matter how the decision comes down from the UARA-STARS Series later today, the fans in the stands know that Ronnie Bassett, Jr. drove his heart out and seemingly did the impossible by coming from last to first.
Ronnie Bassett, Jr. and Bassett Racing are supported by Bassett Gutters & More, Roof Shampoo, Rex Younger Galleries, G-Force South, WP Racing Shocks, Performancenter Racing Warehouse, Ford Racing, Kerry Lawrence Exhaust, Bulldog Rearends, Hank Thomas Performance and RACE22.com.
Want to keep up with Bassett Racing? Check out these links …
Website: http://www.BassettRacers.com/
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Twitter: @BassettRacers
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BassettRacers
Want more information on Ronnie Bassett, Jr.? Check out these links …
Website: http://www.ronniebassettjr.com
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Twitter: @Bulldog_04
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