NASCAR: Loudon Dave Marcis report

• Jack Durbin
• MNI - Motorsport News International
• Sun Jul 21 07:25:51 EDT 1996

> FROM:    DAVE MARCIS   (HETJ54A)

The bad luck seems to continue.  We ran ok for first round
qualifying and second round was rained out.  None of us got
any practice for the race so we had to look at our notes
from last year and other tracks to come up with a set up.
When the race started, our chassis was off but not too bad.
I figured there would be a lot of cautions so I hung around
near the back waiting for a pit stop.  When the stop came we
made some adjustments..mainly tire pressures and seemed to
hit the nail on the head.  I got back out and the car drove
great.  I still stayed near the back of the first pack just
waiting for the other guys tires to give up a little bit and
felt I could start up throught the pack. I was going into
turn one and the guys in the pits saw a puff of smoke.  The
next time around it blew.  I still had the whole turn to
make and my tires hit my own oil and around I went and
tapped the wall.  The damage to the car was not so bad that
we couldn't fix it but the motor was blown so that was it.
The motor in the car was brand new and built by my engine
guy here.  Usually we never have problems with his motors
and we are stilll not sure what happened.  The semi is going
to Pocono right from Loudon and the car and the motor are
still on the truck so we haven't had a chance to take a look
at it. I felt we had a car that would have run good
throughout the race as far as the chassis.  We have been
having chassis problems most of the year and when we get a
time we don't something else goes wrong.  I went to
Talladega after Loudon on Monday to test for Childress.
Tracks like Talladega you work all day just to make some
very small gains.  The cars at this point are pretty well
dialed in for the super speedways so it is the little things
that make a difference.  Hopefully you can take all of the
little gains here and there and end up with something.
Thanks, Dave #71