CHOWCHILLA, California - Eric Humphries made the trip from California to the heartland of NASCAR and made his debut in the very competitive USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series at famed Bristol Motor Speedway. Humphries far exceeded everyone’s expectations including his own when he was able to qualify fourth - beating out series regulars, and lead seventeen laps at the series most difficult venue. Driving for Mason Motorsports with the help of crew chief Mark Huff and series veteran Johnny Rumley, Humphries knew he had a great team, great equipment and a great shot to win.
Eric Humphries teamed up with past go kart competitor Mike Mason, who has been in North Carolina for the past two years sharpening his abilities behind the wheel. Mike and Eric were brought back together by a mutual friend who was working for Mason Motorsports. The mutual friend asked Mike if he would be willing to let Humphries wheel the car at Bristol, and so the ball started to roll.
Mason Motorsports provided Humphries with some of the best equipment and personnel in the game today. Humphries had Mark Huff as his crew chief, Johnny Rumley as a driving coach and a great crew behind him for the Food City 150 held on August 22nd. Humphries first had to do some testing on the half mile which was held on August 13th. Humphries quickly adapted to the track, to the car and to his team. Humphries posted some of the fastest times of the day at 16.072 with the fastest lap of the day being 15.995.
“The car was great, with great horsepower, and the track is awesome” said Humphries after his first time at Bristol Motor Speedway. “Mark Huff and I worked really well together, I gave him the feedback he needed and he made the changes, making for a fast race car. I can’t thank Johnny Rumley enough for all his help; he worked with me all day on my driving line and gave me some great advice.”
The USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series had forty seven drivers on hand to try and qualify for the Food City 150. Humphries, in the first practice on race day immediately posted the eighth quickest time and went onto post the tenth quickest time of both practice sessions, making the test day a non fluke event.
The norm for a full field of cars qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway in any series is separated by half-second to a second. For example the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series who also competed on the 22nd of August, the same day as the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series. Eight tenths separated the Truck series, the NASCAR Bush Series was separated by over nine tenths and the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series was separated by over five tenths. Humphries knew if he was three tenths off the pole time he would be going home. Humphries got up on the wheel to turn a lap time of 16.022, making Humphries the second fastest car with only seven cars left to qualify. Humphries was edged out of second and third by only nine one hundreds of a second making Humphries the fourth fastest qualifier for the Food City 150. The USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series was separated by only three tenths of a second making for the tightest field of the week out of the Truck Series, Bush Series and the NEXTEL Cup Series.
“The car was even better than in practice and I had no idea we were going to put it in the top five for the biggest race of my life,” says Humphries. “It’s unbelievable to come out here to NASCAR’s toughest track and qualify in the top five, wow what a dream come true.”
With Humphries starting on the outside of the second row it made life at little easier knowing that the veteran Johnny Rumley was going to be his spotter for the Food City 150. Humphries took the green flag and by lap seven the yellow was out. Humphries was running in third when the majority of the field came down pit road for tires. Under the direction of crew chief Mark Huff, Humphries would stay out and try to use pit strategy to their advantage. USAR Pro Cup Series states that every team must come down pit road at least once during the race for fresh tires. With a late pit stop the team was hoping that falling back to the tail end of the lead lap would not set them back nearly as much as coming down pit road at the beginning of the race. Humphries took the green in second and on lap twelve the yellow was out for another wreck proving, Mark Huff’s strategy to be a good one.
On lap twelve Mark McFarland who also stayed out with Humphries experienced mechanical problems making Humphries the race leader for the next seventeen laps until race winner Benny Gordon challenged Humphries for the top spot. Humphries ran in the top five for over three quarters of the race which gave Humphries’ new race sponsor “Aaron’s” who came on board after qualifying, and proving to be a top competitor.
On lap ninety the yellow was out for a stalled car on pit road in the middle of turns three and four making pit road impossible to enter. When the track crew finally cleaned up the mess they opened pit road, unfortunately Humphries was in turn three coming to the line for the green flag. Humphries would have to wait until lap 118 to get fresh tires, leaving only about twenty-eight laps to work his way back to the front.
“I was hoping our pit strategy was going to work, but when our pit window was open, pit road was not,” says Humphries. “If things had worked out as planned we would’ve had fifty - sixty laps to work our way back to the front. After his pit stop Humphries was at the tale end of the lead lap. Humphries would make a great come back and went on to finish thirteenth.
“We had a great car today. I can’t thank everyone enough for their help, I would have liked to have passed a few more cars but we just ran out of laps, that’s just racing.”
A race day recap for Eric Humphries: first USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series start, top ten on the speed charts for both practices, qualified fourth, acquired a one time new race sponsor “Aaron’s”, lead seventeen laps, ran in the top five for over three quarters of the race, set the fastest lap of the race at 16.075 and finished a respectable 13th place.
