Winston-Salem, NC(April 30, 2012) — Every race can’t end in dream fashion with a trip to victory lane or an amazing comeback from starting nearly last to finishing second with a chance to win. The outcome of some races come down to mechanical failures and aren’t what any driver or team desire.

That was the case for Ronnie Bassett, Jr. on Thursday night at Richmond International Raceway in downtown, Richmond, VA. The young driver got his chance to suit up and race door to door with some of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing’s best such as defending series champion, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, but despite the effort that he and the team put in, the results didn’t match.

Ronnie, Jr. got the invite to race in the annual charity race, the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown, a race benefiting the Denny Hamlin Foundation featuring some of the best Late Model Stock Car racers in the country as well as more than 10 NASCAR personalities. With his success early on this season in the UARA-STARS Series and his four wins last season, Ronnie, Jr. is among the top drivers in the Late Model Stock Car division, which earned him a spot in the prestigious race.

With the trophy on the line in a charity race against of NASCAR’s best, the young Winston-Salem, NC native was hoping he could ride the wave of momentum from the first three races of the season into Richmond. However, his day got off to a bad start and got even worse as the day and night progressed as the team had many issues arise throughout practice and into the race itself.

During practice, Ronnie, Jr. felt that his car was pretty solid in the first session, but before he could hit the track for the second session the team found a wheel stud broke. After working diligently to correct the problem, another issue was found in the same area as the team would have to replace the hub after it broke as well. With all the problems, Ronnie, Jr’s practice time on the Richmond, VA track was cut almost completely out, something that hindered the team from finding additional problems that would develop later.

Despite the lack of practice and the issues that they faced on pit road, the Bassett Racing team led by crew chief, Chris Lawson got the car ready to hit the track for qualifying. Not knowing what to expect after the team made the repairs to the car and made some changes for qualifying that they didn’t get to try in practice, the 16 year-old driver hit the track. He toured the track at 117.162 miles per hour and posted the 14th fastest time of the qualifying session beating out some of the NASCAR drivers that had also attempted to qualify for the race.

With that, he made the race for his inaugural start at Richmond Int. Raceway and his first in the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown, but from here he would have an uphill battle just trying to keep his car going.

In front of live television audience on SPEED TV in primetime on Thursday night at 8:30pm, Ronnie, Jr. rolled to the start of the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown and despite the car feeling good in the opening laps, trouble was about to strike. At Rockingham Speedway a couple weeks earlier, the team had struggled through what they thought to be carburetor issues in practice, before getting it rectified for the race and ultimately going from last to finish second in the 75-lap race. And, again at Richmond the team seemed to be facing carburetor problems with another, different carburetor.

While Ronnie, Jr. was making laps and staying competitive with the strong 36-car field, running anywhere from 10th to 16th in the first half of the race, the team was on pit road discussing what they could do to fix the problems with the carburetor. They decided that when the field would be given a five minute break on lap 50, that they would make a carburetor change, but doing that in only five minutes would be a tall task for any team.

As lap 50 rolled around and the yellow flag waved for the scheduled break with just 25-laps to go, Ronnie, Jr. hit pit road running 13th and the team consisting of Lawson, Seth Smith and Kris Bradley swarmed his car making changes. The young driver sat in his racecar as the team worked to not only change the right side tires, but also scrambled to change the carburetor. As the break came to an end, the team had made the switch and sent the young driver back out on track.

Despite making what was considered an unapproved change during the break, the NASCAR officials allowed Ronnie, Jr. to keep his position after learning of the problems the car was having under the previous green flag runs. With that, the team and their driver had high hopes of rallying from 13th to challenge for the win, but soon after the green flag waved, the team’s fate was sealed.

The problems with the car and the performance of the engine was unchanged by the carburetor change, meaning that the engine in Ronnie, Jr.’s racer wasn’t up to maximum power. The young wheelman kept his foot on the gas though and raced as high as 10th in the final segment before settling for 12th.

Following the race an obviously dejected driver tried to put his night into words.

“I don’t know what to say,” Ronnie, Jr. said after the race. “This team put in all the hours to get this car ready last week to test, then to get back here and struggle all day was unbelievable. We were fast last week at the test and decent earlier today and then from the drop of the green flag we knew we had a problem.”

Despite out running two thirds of the field, many of which were top NASCAR drivers including Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, Ronnie, Jr. was frustrated with the outcome.

“We were confident after the test last week that this car would be one that we could come back here and at least have a shot to win with. Starting with the broken stud and the broken hub and all the way to the engine problems, it just wasn’t our weekend.”

Ronnie, Jr. was still proud of one fact.

“We’re leaving here with a 12th place finish and that sucks, but with all the problems we had and being down on power, it just shows what kind of car my guys put under me. We had a car capable of winning, we just didn’t have an engine capable of doing the same.”

All in all, the young driver might be frustrated, but he got a great opportunity to race in front of a live television audience and in front of many NASCAR higher-ups and did a great job. He brought the car home in one piece despite being freight trained on every restart due to his lack of power and rallying back to claim each position with every green flag run.

With that, Ronnie, Jr. put Richmond in his rearview mirror, making the four hour trip back home, unloading the Richmond car and loading his UARA car and packing up and heading out to Kingsport, TN for testing at Kingsport Speedway on Saturday. Less than 48-hours after struggling through Richmond, the young driver put it all behind him and got in a solid test on a much different race track as he prepares for round four of the UARA-STARS Series this Friday at Kingsport Speedway.

“Getting back in the car and going to another track is the best medicine after a bad night at the races,” concluded Ronnie, Jr. “We had to turn our focus immediately on Kingsport and the UARA, where we’re running for the championship and we’re not even thinking about Richmond anymore. Hopefully we can put it all behind us with another win on Friday.”

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 …
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Want more information on Ronnie Bassett, Jr.? Check out these links …
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