Opening night is upon us, and the field is set. Well kind of. Qualifying is over for the top ten positions being locked in for the “Hayes Jewelers 200”. Jason Myers was able to grab the pole by a mere 1/1000th of a second over Tim Brown. Of course it wouldn’t be the stadium without a little bit of controversy……even in qualifying.
Teams hit the track at 1pm for practice with the open qualifying session starting at 5pm and lasting until 7. Anyone could practice during that time or if you wanted to try your hand at a timed lap, you could. Of course no one wanted to hit the track until late for their best lap as by then the shadows had fell over the track and it had cooled considerably… and cool track means a fast track.
Burt Myers would be one of the big dogs to go out first but but could only manage a time of 13.411 to put him fourth fastest. The surprise of the round may have been Brandon Ward driving Kevin Powell’s #04 machine, as he diamond the corners and looked to be out of the grove, but still managed to lock in at third place with a time of 13.345.
The talk of the day was the new LFR cars, the hottest chassis in mod racing right now. Tim Brown had both his cars as well as Jason Myers, But Jason decided to run his regular stadium car while Brown stuck with his new car, hardly practicing the old car much at all. Jason would set the benchmark first but all eyes were on the blue #83 as he is the all-time pole leader at Bowman Gray, so much so that just a few years ago he won every pole in an entire season.
Jason would attack the track and set the bar at 13.309, but looked smooth entering and exiting the corners. Brown would have the power down but all day he seemed to have problems getting the car to “set” as it entered the corners, a problem Myers had earlier and the ultimate reason he decided to run his regular ride. Brown would come up just a tick short as he toured the bullring at 13.310.
Controversy and stern words ensued as the clock hit 7pm though. With three cars left, Brian Dauzatt, BoBo Brown and Brody Jones. The teams were told (supposedly) that if they were in line by 7, they could qualify, in years past the qualification round has lasted well after 7. But when it was 7pm, the final three cars waiting to go were told their time had run out, they could not take time. This didn’t go over very well. The most vocal was JonBoy Brown who was helping his brother Bobo.
“I’ve went out after 7 more times than I can count,” said Brown. “This is total BS, we had cars breaking in line, a car stop on track and come back around and re-qualify, someone stop on track to complain about grass on the track, and here we are weighing all the cars on grain scales” Spotter Tony White was vocal as well. “You have to weigh the front of the car and then the back and then do math, it’s from 1955. They want a show, we will oblige them” said White.
The man that was all smiles was Jason Myers though.
“This car just drives so good,” said Myers. The other car chattered some getting in the corners, it’s a new car, we will work on it and it will be fine. I just felt so comfortable in this one. It’s big to come out for the first race and sit on the pole. We will just try to stay up front and most importantly, out of trouble, then be there at the end.”
Race time tomorrow will be 8pm with RACE22.com going live with Five Star Bodies Race Day coverage starting at 6pm as practice begins and the field behind the top ten in mods will be able to stand on their time or re-qualify.
- Jason Myers 13.309
- Tim Brown 13.310
- Brandon Ward 13.345
- Burt Myers 13.411
- Chris Fleming 13.532
- Michael Clifton 13.635
- Dean Ward 13.639
- Brad Robbins 13.13.653
- Lee Jefferys 13.664
- Randy Butner 13.683
- Robert Jefferys 13.686
- Jr. Miller 13.700
- John Smith 13.719
- Mike Bohn 13.750
- Mike Norman 13.752
- David Calabrese 13.790
- Austin Pack 13.859
- Ronnie Clifton 13.870
- BoBo Brown no time
- Brian Dauzat no time
- Brody Jones no time
