Stallard Battles for Record Finish in Motor Mile Season Opener

TROY, NC :: Craig Stallard clinched his best career finish at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, Va on Saturday night.  The season opening event for Motor Mile featured two 75-lap Late Model Stock races in which Stallard finished 11^th and 8^th respectively. The 8^th place finish in race two will now stand as Stallard’s best career finish at Motor Mile Speedway; a track that he will quickly tell you, is not his favorite place to race.

Take a look into Stallard’s records at Motor Mile and it is easy to see why he would prefer to race elsewhere. It’s rattled with disappointing finishes due to ill-handling racecars and the misfortune that comes in racing for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  However, with his new team JumpStart Motorsports, things seem to be turning around for Stallard.

A strong 21 car field lined up to take the green flag for the first race, with Stallard starting in the 19^th position.  He had advanced to 14^th by the time the sole caution of the race fell on lap 32.  The final 43 laps would prove to be a true test of Stallard’s racecar and driving abilities as he would race door to door with competitors Derrick Lancaster and G.R. Waldrop nearly every remaining circuit.  Stallard and Lancaster raced wheel to wheel out of turn four towards the checkered flag on lap 75, with a difference of only .031 seconds separating them at the finish line. Stallard finished 11^th but was fired up for race two to follow later in the night.

“A lot of good, hard racing out there. No one would give an inch. Our car was better on the long runs so I think we could have gotten him (Lancaster) if we had a few more laps.”

Stallard would start 11^th in the second race, as they line up according to finishing order of race one. The first few laps of race two were wild to say the least.  The caution flagged waived before the completion of lap one.  On the restart, the leaders quickly become three-wide causing the field to stack up behind them bringing out the second caution of the race.  This time Stallard wasn’t able to avoid the mayhem and was forced to visit pit road to assess the damage to the front end of his No. 42 JumpStart Motorsports Chevrolet.

Returning to the field in the 16^th position, Stallard had his work cut out for him to even match his 11^th place finish in the first race.  Nonetheless, the ‘underdog’ mentality seems to work well for Stallard, as he was in a similar position earlier this season at Southern National Motorsports Park in Kenly, NC when he scored his best career finish of 6^th.  Stallard wasted no time, as he picked off five competitors in the next 15 laps. Stallard had advanced to 10^th by lap 50 and went on to finish 8^th.

“Every week, these guys at JumpStart Motorsports give me a great racecar and we just keep getting better and better.  The car was really strong there at the end despite the front end damage” said Stallard after the race. “We’ve got something to build on now and I won’t dread coming back here so much!”

Stallard drives for JumpStart Motorsports Driver Development supported by Lemons Motorsports, Grafix Unlimited, Hedgecock Racing Enterprises, and Family Drug. For more information on JumpStart Motorsports Driver Development or the Lemons Motorsports team, check out their website at www.JumpStartMotorsport.com.