Confidence Building As Team Scores Another Top-5 Finish
Story by
Brad Edwards
After last weekend's rain-out, Hale Racing returned to action on July the 24th, and the night proved to be a successful one. The consistency of Hale Racing has been a huge key to the success of this 2004 season, and Saturday night was no different. Michael Hale, and team, took home another top-5 finish, and kept their 3rd place position in the points race. Even though Michael's class was only given two practice sessions, the team worked through it and were still able to put together a quality setup that gave them another great finish. "The car was tight all day, but loose enough that I could still drive it through the corners pretty well," said Michael after Saturday's event. "A tight, drivable, car is a car that will work on the high line, so that's what we did." Michael did it, and did it well. The day began with Michael qualifying in the 6th position with a time of 16.048 seconds around the .3/8 mile oval. "Considering we weren't even a tenth of a second out of 2nd, we couldn't be disappointed with how we qualified," said Michael regarding his qualifying time. The time for the second place qualifier was a 15.982, just a few hundredths ahead of Michael in 6th.
Michael's heat race wasn't too disappo
inting
either. He started 5th, and put the high line to use right off the
bat by moving past fellow competitor Rick Ellison and quickly moving
himself into 4th. This was on the first l
ap
of the race, and on the second one, Michael began battle with the #7 car
of Bryan Wordelman. Michael tried the high line again, but was
unsuccessful as Wordelman was running a high line himself. So
Michael moved his car down to the bottom of the racetrack. On lap
4 Michael was able to get under Bryan, and overcome him. At this
point he then went to work on the #45 car of Shawn Price. Michael
tried high and low with Price, but was unable to get by him.
"I was able to get up beside him, but
couldn't quite get by him," said Michael after his heat race. "3rd
isn't bad at all, we'll make a few changes and see if we can't improve
the car a little bit for the main event." Car and team owner, Red
Hale, went to work and whatever changes were made... worked.
Michael started the main event in the 11th spot, and the moment the green flag flew, he began his journey towards the front. Two quick cautions came out; one due to a poor start by the leaders, and one due to an air filter coming off one of the cars. The third restart proved to be the charm as things went well and Michael was off to the races. A tight field kept Michael in the 11th position during the first 8 laps. However, on lap 9 Michael was able to go to the low side and overcome two cars down the front stretch to move himself into 9th. At lap 10 he began battle with the #48 car of Rob Davis. Michael followed Davis for 5 laps, and on lap 16, was able to overcome him and move up to the 8th spot. However, on the very next lap, the #30 car of Nick Parker was able to move by Michael and once again Michael was back to 9th. On lap 19 a caution came out due to an incident involving the series points leader, Gary Madsen. Madsen was running 5th, and forced to leave due to excessive damage, so Michael gained another position. He was back into 8th, and far from done.
Two laps after going back to green, Michael followed Nick Parker under
the #18 car and moved himself up to 7th. Parker gained another
spot, and Michael was then stuck behind the #80 car of Todd Alonzo.
For the next 9 laps Michael would follow Alonzo closely, trying numerous
times to get by him, but unable to do so. On lap 31, another
caution came out that saw the #84 car of Mark Ith, Jr. cu
t
a tire and slide through the infield. With Ith running 3rd at the
time, this put Michael into the 6th position after Ith left the track
for repairs. As they went back to green, Michael was still
patiently waiting for that opportunity to get by Todd, and the
opportunity finally arose on lap 33. As Alonzo was battling with
the #74 car of Kurt Lindeman, Michael was able to use the high line to
slide by, not just Alonzo, but Lindeman as well. "I had already
tried pretty much everything I could think of to get by the 80 car, and
at one point I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it... being
as there were only 7 or 8 laps left. Sure enough he started racing
with Lindeman, and that high side was open, so I took it, I'm just glad
it worked," said Michael of his pass on the two fellow competitors.
This put Michael into the 4th position, and not even two laps later,
Michael was able to pick up another spot. Thanks in part to the
battle up front between the leaders, Michael was able to move up to 3rd.
Apparently the 50 car of Roger Wilson was doing his best to hold off the
hard charging rookie of Nick Parker when the two got together and Wilson
spun to the infield. No caution was thrown, but 5 laps later one
would come out concerning a separate issue. Michael took advantage
of the caution and on lap 38 he was able to get by the #7 car of Bryan
Wordelman. Michael took home a strong 2nd place finish, and a lot
of smiles too. "We did good tonight. The car was a little
tight, but we'll work on it. Maybe we can get it a little faster,
we'll just have to wait and see for next weekend," said car and team
owner, Red Hale, after Saturday night.
Hale Racing would like to welcome Arnold's Machinery to the team, and send them a very special thank you for their support during Saturday's event. We would also like to thank all of our other great sponsors that help support us week in and week out. Our team greatly appreciates all that you do, and have done, for us, during the season. A big thanks also goes out to our great fans that continue to come out and watch us compete every week. We had a great showing of fans on Saturday, and, as we've said before, that's much of the reason we continue to do what we do each week. Thanks to all of you! This season would not be the successful one that it has been so far if it weren't for you guys. We hope that you'll continue to support us throughout the rest of the 2004 season. Hale Racing takes back to the track next Saturday, July 31st for a double main. This is to make up for the rain out on the 17th, so don't miss out! We'll see you all next weekend.
Story by
Brad Edwards
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