BAKERSFIELD, California — Going into the 2009 season opener at All American Speedway for the SRL Southwest Tour series, driver Brennan Newberry with NTS Motorsports, piloting the #09 Chevy Monte Carlo with crew chief Gary Collins, anticipated a great race.
However, we don’t always get what we anticipate. As the race weekend began on Friday, there were already problems early on. With an oil leak during practice, right before qualifying, the team was unsure how qualifying would end up. Brennan went out and gave it his best, and qualified 12th.
On race day the challenges weren’t over. Running 4th quick in practice a communication error resulted into a wreck that occurred while exiting the track. This caused the team to pull out their back up car, which would force them to start at the back in 21st position.
Even with the frustrations running high, the team worked diligently to prepare the back up car for the race. “It motivates me when I see my team work as hard as they do, I couldn’t do this with out them!” expresses Brennan.
As the race began, Brennan pulled from 21st to 14th by lap 9. He was turned around which he had to start from the back again a lap down. A few laps later a red flag race incident allowed Brennan to receive “The Lucky Dog” and he got back on lead lap. On lap 55 he spins again. On lap 82 he spun again with the help of another car. After starting in the back five times, a 12th place finish to the 125 lap race wasn’t a bad thing. Could have been better and definitely could have been worse.
When speaking to Brennan after the race I asked him what was the highlight he learned? He replied with , “coming back from adversities - I had to think about each lap and forget the past, putting my head down to stay focused” And what he didn’t like… “ I felt the communication could be better and I understand it’s an ongoing skill I hope to do better in the future, also I would like to be a little more patient not so antsy. It’s definitely all a learning curve.”
NTS Motorsports is looking for redemption in the next race -“Southwest Sunday Showdown” held at The Bullring ,Las Vegas Motor Speedway on May 4th, 2009 .
