IRWINDALE, Calif. (May 12, 2001) – It was nothing short of an impressive run for driver of the No. 65 Lucas Oil car Sammy Potashnick and team at this weekend's NASCAR Winston West Series race in Irwindale, Calif.
Qualifying sixth for Irwindale Speedway's Food 4 Less 250, it took Potashnick less than two laps to pick off two spots moving him into 4th place where he continued with a solid top-5 run. Lap 86 brought the first caution of the race. An exeptional pit stop was made by the SP Racing Lucas Oil team when Potashnick came into the pits in 5th place and went back out onto the track in 1st place.
Potashnick was the race leader for 23 laps. Maintaining a hard charged run in the top 3 for most of the race, Potashnick was a dominant force in the field. While running in 3rd place on lap 244 of 250, the 2nd-place car of Sean Woodside and the lap car of Austin Cameron made contact that sent them spinning into turn 2. Potashnick, tailing closely behind, was left with nowhere to go but right into the mess of it. Potashnick's car suffered major damage, and with only 6 laps to go what should have been a podium finish turned into an 8th-place finish.
Despite the bad luck, the finish brought Potashnick up to 9th place in NASCAR Winston West Series Points.
"It sure is unfortunate when this kind of thing happens." Potashnick said and added, "I guess that we're lucky to come out with 8th place after what happened, but we should have had a top-3 finish. That would have really helped us out in the points. The guys have worked really hard and they had a great car ready for the race. I'm very proud of them. Just when you want to think we're going to get our break, the exact opposite happens. But with strong runs like this and such a solid team effort, this Lucas Oil team is going to visit victory lane very soon."
Fox Sports Net covered the race from Irwindale which will have a tape-delayed
air date to be announced. Log onto www.Sammy65.com for air dates and times
which will be posted immediately upon their release. The next race for
Potashnick and team will be next weekend (May 20) at Laguna Seca's road
course where they'll be ready for another great effort.
