It was a top five finish for Jeff Barkshire and team with their 46 Centennial Battery Dodge, in what was only the second start and final Camping World West race of
their very limited 09 season. Having finished second in Irwindale on the 4th of July, and having run a great race at the Iowa track last season, where they lead 68 laps and battled Kasey Kahne for the lead, hopes were high that they’d be first over the finish line this time around. However, as Jeff put it, “The car was decent, but not good enough to win.”
It was good enough though, to battle hard among the best of them up front in the top five all night. After earning a sixth place starting position during qualifying, they ran as high as third during the first seventy five laps. After the break, having made a few changes and with four new tires, “We hoped to be faster,” Jeff said, “But the car still just wouldn’t turn as well as it needed to in the middle of the corner.” Even so, “It was a lot of hard racing with some really good cars; a lot of fun.”
Though it wasn’t the win they hoped for, Jeff shared how very proud he is of the job his all volunteer team did, without the practice and momentum of running a full season. This was only their second start out of three attempted races, (the first, in Phoenix, ending before the race began as tire failure during practice resulted in their 3rd fast car hitting the wall). “I thought we might be kind of rusty, sort of out of sync, but they all came together and did a great job, earning another top five finish.”
Jeff and the 46 team are hoping to race the Fall Classic at Yakima Speedway on October 4th, “We haven’t run it since we won back in ‘05, so it should be a lot of fun,” Jeff said. It’s been frustrating for the 46 team to be forced, due to limited finances, to run such a limited schedule this year. They are thankful to Centennial Batteries for their continued support, and continue working to find more sponsorship with the hope of running a full season next year.
For further info visit our website at jeffbarkshire.com
