TEAM HARDIN RACING PRESS RELEASE

Source: Hardin Racing/rw
Date: 05/24/2008

NEWTON, Iowa – It was a little bit breezy with a lot of sunshine as Eric Hardin prepared himself for racing at Iowa Speedway.

Eric Hardin, driver of the No. 5 Direct Shopping Network Chevrolet, struggled a little with his car getting it where he wanted before qualifying for the U.S. Cellular 200. Hardin made day and night changes to his new race car which he had never driven before Sunday’s race. As soon as the garages opened on Sunday morning there was no time to waste getting the car tuned for the 7/8 mile track.

“We have never tested or driven this car before. It’s a lot of work to figure it out in 2 ½ hours of practice.” Hardin said. “It’s a really good car but we just couldn’t keep it from getting tight on us as the laps rolled on.”

Hardin struggled with qualifying landing him a 33rd position start, which isn’t bad considering 58 drivers were competing for only 44 spots forcing 14 teams to go home.

“I was a little disappointed with qualifying because I knew we had a faster race car than that, which we eventually proved during the race.” Hardin said.

He quickly made his way up through the field and into the 12th position with aggressive driving and strategic pit stops. Hardin was on the run and on the throttle racing his car three wide passing drivers such as motocross icon Ricky Carmichael, Brian Ickler who was the eventual winner of the race, and running side by side with Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne who had just won the All-Star race the night prior at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

On lap 132 Hardin got tangled up in a wreck spinning him all the way around and into the turn two wall. The caution came out and so did Hardin’s car from the race.

Hardin was okay but unable to fix the car and complete the race putting him in the 39th position for checkered flag.

“It’s pretty disappointing after all the hours that are put into these races and these race cars just to be knocked out by another car. That’s just part of this sport.” Said Dennis Hardin, Owner of Team Hardin Racing. “We had positioned ourselves for a top ten finish which is a huge accomplishment in itself driving with the talent that was on the track at Iowa.”

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