Story by: Langley Austin — [email protected]
Wytheville, VA(April 30, 2009) — When the checkered flag dropped on the 2008 UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car series season the top two rookies; Brandon McReynolds and Darrell Wallace, Jr. found themselves at two totally different ends of the spectrum with one nearly pulling off his second career victory and Wallace finding himself having another terrible run at Concord Speedway, his home track.
Turn the page to race #5 or after two rainouts race #3 at Concord Speedway again and these two drivers have found themselves a little closer to each other, but a long ways from where they thought they would be by this time in their sophomore season. After three races the best finish by either driver is an 18th place finish and the story of how they finished in the first three races only begins to tell the story of how bad their season has been.
Let’s start with McReynolds … his season started with blown engine during the first test at Rockingham Speedway, then found himself among the fastest at Bristol during the test. When it was time for race one at Bristol Motor Speedway after the original season opener at Hickory Motor Speedway was canceled and the young driver didn’t even get to qualify his car after blowing yet another engine. Then during the race he struggled with his throttle getting hung and other mechanical issues … OK, so you’re starting to see the trend and it doesn’t even end there … on to Rockingham Speedway and a cut tire while racing inside the top ten ended his strong run, but life continued to get worse for him when it was time for Concord.
On Friday, April 24th McReynolds hit Concord Speedway to test with many of the other UARA regulars and soon after hitting the track he thought he had another engine letting go, but fortunately for he and his team they simply had the wrong gear in the car and after fixing it turned some impressive laps. On Saturday is was off to the races for the young driver as he was the fastest in one of the rounds of practice and life seemed like it was back on track until qualifying. On his second lap of qualifying McReynolds lost yet another engine.
His team worked feverishly to get the engine from the back-up car out and into the primary car and made it just in time for the start of the race. When the green flag dropped McReynolds looked strong and looked as if he could take on the world, but it wasn’t meant to be as yet another engine expired in his Dodge car. McReynolds finished last of the 26 cars to start the feature at Concord Speedway in the UARA-STARS 150 and with that now has a 21.6 average finish in the first three races of the season, not quite the championship caliber effort he expected after a successful rookie campaign.
OK, so you’re thinking that Wallace’s season couldn’t be any worse, but believe it or not Wallace’s average finish for the season has been 23.3, but the road to get there has been a little easier on his team finances. Bristol was one of Wallace’s best tracks in 2008 where he collected two top ten finishes, but after getting some damage in an early crash he had some pit road issues that relegated him to a 27th place finish. The car had some mechanical issues, but unlike McReynolds he wasn’t replacing an engine.
Then it was on to Rockingham and Wallace just wasn’t able to find his groove as he practiced and qualified off the pace and raced to a 22nd place finish and then it was back to Concord. Concord has been the most challenging track for Wallace so far in his short Late Model career, but this season he came there looking to redeem himself and after practicing strong he was able to back it up with a fifth place qualifying effort thus seeming to lift the sophomore jinx that it seemed he and McReynolds have been struggling with this season.
Unfortunately for Wallace, the fifth place qualifying effort was about the end of his good run as he slipped back at the start of the race, but not too far back only to get spun late after contact with Davin Scites and then spinning on his own a few laps later. He would then find himself caught up in a crash that would end his night when Logan Ruffin turned Kyle Moon around in front of him and landed Wallace practically in the car with Ruffin. Wallace would be credited with a 21st place finish, his best finish of the season.
Many people think that in racing that the “Sophomore Jinx” is natural after a successful rookie season and maybe those people are right as Wallace, the 2008 UARA-STARS Rookie of the Year and his runner-up, McReynolds have struggled greatly so far in 2009. Both drivers scored their first wins in 2008, but this season either would be very happy to just get a top ten or a lead lap finish.
The sophomore jinx has hit these two future stars hard, but one sophomore not feeling the affects of the second year jinx is recent Concord UARA 150 winner, Paddy Rodenbeck. Rodenbeck however had a terrible roller coaster of a season in 2008, but since joining forces with crew chief, Jeff Caudill has made huge gains. Rodenbeck rarely finished a race in 2008, but to date in 2009 he has finishes of 4th, 2nd and 1st and major change from his rookie season.
So with that said maybe being the “hot young rookie” isn’t really the ticket to having a great sophomore season and McReynolds, Wallace and Rodenbeck are great examples of this theory, but who’s to say that either the bad luck for McReynolds and Wallace or the good luck for Rodenbeck will continue. Who knows it may switch around completely in the next UARA-STARS tour race, which is the make up race for the rained out April 10th show at Tri-County on Friday, May 22nd.
We’ll see how it all plays out when the tour hits the track for race #4 at Tri-County and lucky for these two young drivers they’ve got plenty of time to try and fix their problems and turn their seasons around. However, with McReynolds 16th in points 159 out of the lead and Wallace 18th in points 166 points back it’s very unlikely that either of these two drivers can make a run at the championship, which was at the top of both of their lists before this season started.
