16TH FOR JASON BOWLES AT KENTUCKY IN THE THRUSH & SON/HI-TECHNOLOGIES NO. 81
“Bowles recovers from pit road penalty to get 14th top-20 finish of the season”
(SPARTA, KENTUCKY) September 24, 2012 – Jason Bowles and his MacDonald Motorsports team were in need of a strong finish, and that is exactly what they got Saturday afternoon in the Kentucky 300. With new partner Thrush & Son Complete Home Improvement and HI-Technologies on the No. 81, Bowles recovered from a pit road penalty to register a 16th place finish.
“The car was pretty good all day and we had a great shot at another top-15 finish,” said Bowles after the race. “Everyone on the crew did a great job and the pit-stops were solid all day as well. I really want to thank the Thrush family for everything this weekend. They run a first class organization and their C.H.I.P. software product is an excellent tool for any home improvement company that wants to save time and money.”
After practicing 17th, Jason qualified the Thrush & Son/HI-Technologies No. 81 23rd on the grid for the race. The car showed speed right away, as Bowles advanced into the top-20 in the opening laps.
On the lap-30 competition caution, crew chief John Monsam made the call for two tires. A great pit-stop moved Bowles up to 14th position for the restart. After the green, Jason continued moving forward, advancing up into 12th spot.
On lap 87, Bowles was making his way onto pit road as Taylor Malsam went spinning through the front stretch grass right behind him. The yellow came out, closing the pits 0.1 seconds before Jason crossed the commitment line, resulting in an End of the Longest Line penalty.
“The pit-road penalty was tough because I was already committed to pit-lane and couldn’t do anything,” explained Bowles. “It put us a lap down and behind for the rest of the race. Luckily I have a great team behind me and we kept pushing for the remainder of the race to get a solid 16th, just what we needed right now.”
Bowles remains 14th in the driver standings following the race weekend and heading into Dover. The MacDonald Motorsports No. 81 sits 22nd in the owner standings with six races remaining on the season.
Next weekend, the MacDonald Motorsports team rolls north to Dover, Delaware for the second time this season. The One Main Financial 200 will go on the air live on ESPN2 at 3:00PM ET.
Follow Jason Bowles on Social Media…..Keep up with everything that Jason is doing by following him on twitter @bowlesjason. Fans can also follow the race team on twitter @mms81_pr.
Follow Thrush & Son on Social Media…..Learn more about Thrush & Son and HI-Technologies on facebook and at their websites, www.thrushandson.com and www.hi-technologies.com.
About Thrush & Son Complete Home Improvement
Thrush & Son: Complete Home Improvement Company has been a respected leader in the home improvement industry since 1960. W. Allen Thrush (Pres/CEO) purchased the company from his father in 1989 and that’s when the company began to grow and evolve into the industry leader that it is today. Thrush & Son has been recognized in numerous national publications. Thrush & Son takes pride in their quality craftsmanship and the fact that after 52 years in the industry, they are still truly a family owned and operated business. Whether your home has been damaged by a severe storm or you are interested in a new roof, windows, siding, patio covers, gutters, or insulation Thrush & Son has all the bases covered when it comes to transforming a house into a dream home.
About HI-Technologies
H.I. Technologies is dedicated to developing home improvement business solution software. The foundation of the company first came about in 2005 when W. Allen Thrush noticed a need for a business solution for his own home improvement company, Thrush & Son. CHIP is a 100% web based business software that saves time and money. CHIP tracks closing rates while also controlling commissions of a company’s sales force and contracted labor costs. This program organizes customers’ information and record keeping. It also configures mailing lists, creates material orders and generates all work orders for projects that are sold. CHIP also offers the capability to track profit and loss for each project that is entered into the program to let an owner or manager know where they stand on that job. All of this is done with a few simple clicks of a button and can be from accessed anywhere via internet explorer.
MacDonald Motorsports
MacDonald Motorsports Owner Randy MacDonald has been around the NASCAR circles since 1985, when he began his own racing career with the loving support of his father “Doc” and his mother Pat MacDonald. As a NASCAR driver, Randy was successful in making it all the way to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The MacDonald family became NASCAR team owners in 1986 and have fielded cars in all three of NASCAR’s elite series following faith based principles. MacDonald Motorsports focuses on assisting our sponsors with strategically increasing the overall awareness of corporate messaging or brand recognition by consistently articulating the message to be delivered through motorsports. MacDonald Motorsports offers drivers opportunities to gain experience from grass roots all the way through the elite series of NASCAR.
Denny Time!! Hamlin Dominates at Loudon
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[/media-credit]On a sun splashed Sunday afternoon in Loudon,NH, Denny Hamlin stood on the starting grid looking calm and relaxed. The Sunday previous at Chicagoland Speedway ended in disappointment for the Chesterfield,VA native as he run out of fuel on the last lap relegating him to a 16th place finish. After the race he went as far to guarantee a win at New Hampshire a track where he led a race high 150 laps in July only to come up short and finish 2nd to race winner Kasey Kahne.
Using the misfortune of last Sunday and a race that got away in July as motivation leading into Sunday’s second race of the chase Denny Hamlin looked to reassert himself as a contender for the 2012 championship at the end of the day he would follow through on his guarantee of week before in dominating fashion.
As the green flag flew on the Sylvania 300, Hamlin who had to start 32nd after a poor qualifying effort wasted no time making his way through the field finding himself in the Top 15 before the competition caution at lap 40.
53 laps later on lap 93 Denny would pass his teammate Kyle Busch and take the lead for the first time in the race and would go on to lead a race high 193 laps on the afternoon. As good as Hamlin’s car looked in traffic it was even more dominating in clean air as he would continuously run the fastest laps of the race and was at times two tenths of a second faster than the field.
Electing not to pit on the lap 130 caution, Hamlin was in the window of having to make a green flag pit stop when a well timed caution flew on lap 179 allowing him to pit with the rest of the lead lap cars to maintain crucial track position on one of the series toughest circuits on which to pass.
After another set of green flag pit stops Hamlin’s lead had grown to over 4 seconds over Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson and it looked like Hamlin would continue to stretch the lead until a caution come out with 26 laps to go.
The top 7 cars opted to stay out and not pit before the final restart allowing Hamlin to maintain his position as the race leader. Getting an incredible jump on the restart Hamlin was able to stretch his lead to over 2 seconds on Jimmie Johnson with about 10 laps to go. Hamlin was never challenged coming to the checkers allowing him to cruise to his series leading 5th win of the season and a milestone 100th Sprint Cup Series win for Joe Gibbs Racing since the organization’s inception in 1992. “Our car was just extremely strong all weekend long,” said Hamlin in victory lane after the race. “Obviously we would have swept the weekend as far as number-one’s (practice, qualifying and race) if we didn’t have that blunder in qualifying.”
Car owner Joe Gibbs spoke about the significance of the organization’s 100th cup win after the race. “It was a huge day for us,” “Bobby Labonte (former JGR driver) came in victory circle and congratulated us, I appreciated Bobby. Dale Jarrett, Jimmy Makar, everybody when we first started..Tony (Stewart). It took a lot of people down the road.
After picking up the win at New Hampshire. Hamlin now sits third just 7 points back of leader Jimmie Johnson heading into next week at Dover, a track Hamlin has struggled at in the past scoring only 4 Top 10 finishes in 13 starts to go with an average finish of 20.5 in those starts. Next week could prove to be big as far as the championship hopes of the 11 team and Denny Hamlin are concerned.
