ARCA: Rookie Mason Mingus Continued to Learn at Mobile
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[/media-credit]Rookie Mason Mingus continued to learn last weekend at Mobile International Speedway as he finished 19th after running in the top five at one point.
“I’m upset with what happened there near the end of the race, because we really were starting to come into our own,” Mingus says. “Our Call 811 Before You Dig car is pretty wrinkled up, but I guess that’s just the characteristics of being a rookie and racing on a short track.
On a restart with 85 to go, the 17-year-old restarted 13th after making a green-flag pit stop. Short track racing is always tight and as a result of some contact, Mingus damaged the rear-end. Crew Chief Mike Chaffee brought Mingus down pit road to fix the damage, putting Mingus in the 24th position. From there, Mingus was able to work his way back up to the top 15, before going for a spin on lap 177.
The Win-Tron team would make repairs and Mingus would set forth on the climb again, just barely cracking the top 20.
“I couldn’t have asked anything more from the team,” he says. “We went forward from the time the green flag dropped and the car was really good. Our goal this weekend was to finish the race and we accomplished that, I just wish it would have been a little better terms.”
Despite the disappointments, Nate Thiesse, the co-car-owner of Win-Tron Racing says he was pleased with the day.
“Honestly, we couldn’t have any expected anything more from Mason,” he says. “He did everything right this weekend. He acquired seat time, ran competitive laps and made improvement during the race. I know he’s a little down because of the late race entanglement, but that’s just part of short track racing near the end of the race where the intensity picks up a ton.
“For just his second ARCA race, he was able to come from the back to the front twice and see the checkered flag, so we’re proud of him and look to build on this at our next venue at Salem.”
Further information including driver opportunities with Win-Tron Racing is available by visiting win-tronracing.com.
For more on Mason Mingus, please visit MasonMingusRacing.com.
Denny Hamlin: No doubt that winning Bristol would be special
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[/media-credit]After finishing ninth in points last year and struggling at some points, Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) team knew they needed to make a change.
As soon as they learned that 2011 Sprint Cup Series Champion Tony Stewart had fired crew chief Darian Grubb, JGR jumped at the chance to hire him. The result is Hamlin doing better this year as he is excited to go to the track each week.
“I’m constantly now going to the track excited about our outlook and instead of counting down the weeks until it’s all over,” he said last weekend. “Obviously, last year not being competitive for most of the year until the very end when we ran some top-10s and top-fives, but it was just kind of go through the motions. Right now, you’re more optimistic about what you’ve got in front of you.”
So far this season, Hamlin finished fourth at Daytona, won Phoenix and finished 20th last weekend at Las Vegas. This weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway will mark the first short track race of the 2012 season as the Sprint Cup schedule continues. In 12 starts at Bristol, Hamlin has three top fives and six top 10s.
“Coming so close before has really only made us want to win one of these Bristol races more than ever,” he said in the team preview. “There is no doubt that winning at Bristol would be special and I know I speak for the entire team when I say leaving here with a trophy is something everyone in racing wants to accomplish in their career. We’ve felt like we’ve had the car on a couple of occasions but had some bad luck in terms of parts going bad at the worst possible times.”
After Bristol, teams head back out west for the 1.5 mile oval in California. Hamlin says he wishes it was organized differently.
“You kind of wish they had all these three west coast races all in a row,” he said. “Obviously going back to Bristol is a total different mind set then what we’re running this week and then back to a total different mindset when you go to California. I like California, I think the track is aging really well. It’s getting to where that track you can run all over from the bottom to the very top. It takes 10 years to get a surface to do that.”
He added that with most tracks being repaved, it takes away from the racing as he likes the older surfaces better to run on.
Hamlin started racing at a young age, winning his first go-kart race at the age of seven. From there, he moved up the ranks before moving into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2005.
“It’s been such a ride getting to the spot where I am now,” he said. “Sometimes you forget the peaks and the valleys that you go through to get to the point in which you are right now.”
Hamlin added that he remembers working back at Subway 15 years ago.
“It’s amazing to me when you look back at it and thinking I was making $4.75 an hour and I was happy,” he continued. “All I did was spend all my money on the truck I had and that’s all I cared about.”
