Mike Mason scored his first career Top-10 USAR Hooters Pro Cup finish rolling to a 10th-place effort in the Naturally Fresh 250 at Peach State Speedway near Jefferson, GA. Saturday.
The top effort came in Mason’s fifth career USAR start and helped the Bakersfield, CA driver unofficially increase his lead in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Rookie of the Year standings to 30 points over Dange Hanniford and 29 markers over Trevor Bayne.
“Boys, you gave me a great car tonight,” Mason (right) radioed his crew on the cool down lap after the race. “This thing was a rocketship. I can’t thank you enough.”
Initially, it didn’t look like Mason - or anyone else for that matter - would be doing any racing on the Peach State half-mile oval as severe thunderstorms pounded the Georgia race track early in the day. By noon, however, the weather broke and the teams took to the raceway for practice and qualifying where Mason turned in a lap of 19.207 – good enough for 21st in the 32-car starting field.
“Our qualifying lap was disappointing,” said Mason, who qualified in the Top-10 in two of the previous three Pro Cup races held this season. “There’s a pretty big bump coming off of Turn 2 and when I hit it on my first qualifying lap, the car got all crossed up. That killed my time and considering everyone was going faster on their first lap, we were kind of stuck even though we went faster on our second qualifying lap.”
At the drop of the green flag, Mason bided his time staying out of trouble before making his first pit stop during the fourth caution period of the evening on Lap 85. Mason would eventually cycle his way into the Top-5 by Lap 107 as he and his Mason Motorsports team played a tire strategy game.
“Peach State, like the last track we raced at in Montgomery (AL), is worn out and pretty hard on tires,” said Mason. “We only had 10 tires for the race, so we really wanted to run a consistent pace and not abuse the tires.”
With the rest of the leaders on fresher rubber, Mason - who just turned 19 on March 29 - showed the poise of a veteran as he moved over and let the faster cars drive by. Still running in the Top 15, Mason thought he was having a tire problem when he came to pit road for service with just under 100 laps remaining.
“We started to have a vibration in the front of the car,” said Mason. “I couldn’t tell if it was a tire or if we broke a shock. Either way, the car wasn’t driving anywhere near the way it had been earlier in the race.”
A quick inspection on pit road revealed all the tires and shocks were intact. Thanks to some quick chassis and air pressure adjustments by crew chief Mark Huff (left), Mason returned to the track on the lead lap and quickly regained form on the restart.
“I don’t know what you did Huff, but we’ve got our racecar back,” Mason radioed to his relieved crew chief.
Mason would steer his Watkins Engine Development Ford Taurus on to pit road for the final time at Lap 183 taking on fresh tires and rubber. Again pitting out of sequence with the leaders, Mason returned at the back of the lead lap pack and promptly used the new tires to good advantage driving his way back into the Top-10.
“We had a great chance to win the race because everyone in front of us still had to pit,” said Mason. “We ran right up to them. They were all there, right in front of us. Unfortunately, the caution came out with just over 30 laps to go and everyone came in for new tires. That put us up to fifth, but we knew we had our work cut out for us because everyone behind us had fresher rubber than we did.”
Back under green, Mason held his own dropping only a handful of spots in the final laps to earn his first career USAR Top-10 finish.
“We had a very good car and great pit strategy tonight,” Mason stated. “We’re doing what we have to do to get experience and finish these races with the car all in one piece.”
Clay Rogers won the event followed by Shane Huffman, Wayne Willard, Jody Lavender, Mike Herman, Jr. Jeff Fultz, Chase Pistone, Joey Logano, Matt Carter and Mason.
Mason now has completed all but one of the 1,267 laps contested in his five USAR Hooters Pro Cup outings dating back to the final South Division regular season event at Lakeland in 2005 and the first four races of the 2006 South Division campaign.
He has finished in the Top-15 in all five of his USAR Hooters Pro Cup starts to date.
“We’re doing what we need to be doing,” said Mason. “We’re getting experience - quality lap experience - at every race. I’ve got a lot of good people around me and we’re doing what we need to do at the shop and at the track to earn good finishes. It’s the kind of thing you hope for when you’re planning your season and feels really good that we’ve been able to accomplish our goals so far this year.”
Mason and his No. 75 Mason Motorsports Ford Taurus will next take the green flag at Concord (NC) Motorsports Park on Saturday, April 29, at 7 p.m.
The 250-lap USAR Hooters Pro Cup event will be telecast by The SPEED Channel on a taped-delayed basis on Wednesday, May 3, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time.
For more information about Mike Mason and Mason Motorsports, please log on to wwwmason-motorsports.com
For more information about corporate marketing and media opportunities with Mike Mason and Mason Motorsports for the 2006 USAR Hooters Pro Cup season, please contact John Close at closefinshes@aol.com or call 704-236-9986.
