BARKSHIRE SALVAGES 8TH AFTER FRUSTRATING DAY IN KYLE

Left with a car in need of an engine and a thousand miles to travel, the week between his 5th place finish in Phoenix and his next race in Kyle Texas was a busy one for Jeff. It was from the #46 Centennial Battery Dodge, prepared for Kyle, that the team hurriedly pulled the engine for a quick install into the Phoenix car, whose engine had blown during practice. The team all returned home to Washington and Oregon, but thanks to time off given for racing by his employer Fed Ex, Jeff was able to remain in Phoenix. Working out of the hauler in a parking lot, he was able to get the engine reinstalled and the car set up before making the drive to Texas.

It was a frustrating practice in Kyle, where chasing a miss in the engine gave them little time to focus on a poor handling car, resulting in a practice time of 15th. Though the miss was never corrected, a handful of adjustments on the car resulted in a 4th place qualifying time.

Jeff comfortably held his 4th place position until contact with a lap car resulted in a spin and a broken sway bar bolt. In spite of the ill handling car he made it back up near the front, running in the top 5 until lap 116, when contact with the 5 car resulted in a spin that sent him back to l6th. From there he battled his way back to 8th place, where he finished the race.

"It became a really frustrating race after our sway bar failure," Jeff said, "but ended up being a decent points' day. We're really looking forward to Iowa." He held his 6th place in overall points, one point behind the three who are tied for third, and is currently tied for first in Rookie points.

It's now a long drive home alone to Puyallup, Washington, where they'll have a three week break before the next race in Iowa on May l8th.

You may view a replay of the Kyle race on Speed Channel, May 7th at 9:00 am.

The Iowa race will be shown live on HD Net.

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