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Consistent Again, Team
Earns Another Top-10 It may not have been the best night of racing for the Hale Racing team, but it wasn't the worst either. Consistency has kept the team in the top-3 in the points standings for pretty much the entire season. Saturday night was no different. After the team earned two wins in the previous week of racing, they came back hoping for another successful one on Saturday, July 3rd. "The car was loose all day long, we struggled with it, but overall the night wasn't too bad," said driver Michael Hale after Saturday's event. I'd say he was right. The team started their evening off with a 6th place qualifying spot with a lap-time of 16.129 seconds around the .3/8 mile oval. This session went much better than that of the week before when they had issues with fuel that resulted in the engine misfiring. The team was okay with 6th, but determined to improve the cars setup and be as competitive as possible for the upcoming heat race. Michael started fifth for his heat race, and before long was caught up behind a fellow competitor. "I stayed patient and waited for the faster cars to move by up high so I could follow suit, there wasn't anything I could really do," said Michael. After losing 2 spots, Michael moved up the track, and followed the #20 car past 3 cars. He stayed there the rest of the way, and finished 4th for the event. Due to the car still being loose, the team went ahead and tightened it up some more for the main event. Michael started 12th, and struggled early, getting caught up in traffic once more and falling back to 14th, but at lap 18, things turned around. Michael slowly made his way by other drivers, and by lap 21, he was into the top 10. On lap 23, he used the high line to get by the #74 car of Kurt Lindeman, and then began working on the #80 car of Todd Alonzo. He used the same line to move by him, and just like that, Michael had moved into 6th. He stayed there for 7 laps before being passed by the #11 car of Gary Madsen while battling with Shawn Price in the #45 car. On lap 35, Michael and the #45 car got together and touched coming out of turn-4. This caused Price's car to spin into the infield, and knowing his car wasn't perfect, he moved down into the center of the track and parked it for the rest of the event. "The car was just pushing, and there wasn't anything I could do, Shawn told me after the race that his car wasn't right either after the earlier caution that he was involved in. We both apologized to one another, so everything is alright, it's just a racing deal," said Michael after the event on the issue. The slight "get-together" caused Michael to fall back to 7th when the #80 car was able to slip back by him. Michael was all by himself at this point, and finished the race where he was. This now gives the team ten top-10 finishes, and keeps them in 3rd place in this season's points standings, just 14 points behind 2nd, and 14 points ahead of 4th. "The 30 car is running real well, I don't know if we'll be able to catch him, but we're definitely going to try," said Michael after finding out he remained in 3rd place after Saturday's race. The team gets the night off this Saturday, July the 10th, but be sure to come cheer us on when we return to action on July 17th. We plan to make a few changes to the car and hopefully become a little more competitive. Once again, we had a great turn-out from our fans on Saturday night, and we hope to see it again on the 17th. Thanks to all those that came and supported us, and thanks again to our great sponsors that were there to help as well. Your support keeps us racing and your positive comments keep us loving it. Thank you so much, and we hope to see you all again in two weeks.
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