RUNNER UP FINISH FOR BARKSHIRE AT IRWINDALE

Although Barkshire and team had a pretty good car and fourth place finish at Irwindale's Toyota Speedway on July 4th, they couldn't get back on the track without making some changes, in their endless effort to make the 46 Centennial Battery Dodge "even better." Changes made, Jeff headed out to first practice and found the car to be "junk." So much for a new set up. It was back to a similar one to what they'd run before for second practice, and the car was second fast. Eighth out to qualify, with the car by then too tight, they began the race in their qualifying position of seventh.

As Jeff described it, "The first half of the race the car was terrible, a real handful. As I was struggling to drive it, I was also, more than usual, struggling to figure out just what was wrong and how to fix it. I knew we had a chance to make changes ahead at the 100 lap pit stop, but was puzzled as to what adjustments would help." In spite of the ill handling car, and after at one point falling back to 11th, Jeff headed into the half way break having fought his way back up to 6th position. It was then that crew chief Steve Dykman made the call for three big changes - changes for the second half that "woke up the car."

"Although the car still wasn't great, it was good enough to drive to the front, and with the good fortune for us of an incident between the second and third place cars, which we were able to drive through without receiving major damage, we grabbed the second spot where we were able to maintain comfortably to finish in the runner up position."

"It was thanks to the right calls by Steve and a great team effort that we finished in second with a mediocre car," Jeff said. They gained a position, to third, in the Camping World Series Championship Standings, and Jeff continues to lead in the competition for Rookie of the Year. Next, it's on to Altamont Motorsports Park in Tracy, California, on September 13th, for their first race on the half mile oval.

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