“Problems started with a wreck early on, and from there it just snowballed for us,” explained Lia. “I got pushed into an early wreck by Ted Christopher. It really wasn’t that bad, it just banged the right front up a little bit. I think it ended up going flat, I don’t remember. We had so many problems, I don’t even remember. We tried hard. We never gave up. We ended up three laps down, which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”
It seemed like Lia was a victim of nearly every on-track incident, but despite a lackluster finish at a track where “Mr. August” has been so dominant in the past, Lia remained optimistic about his team and how well they worked together. After making a few personnel changes over the past week, this was the first race in which the crew chief role of the #18 team was a group effort between Lia and his crew members.
“It definitely just wasn’t our night,” said Lia. “Any wreck that we could have been in, we were in. Anything that could go wrong went wrong for us. That’s the bottom line. On another note, I’m proud of my guys. We worked together well today, and we had a car that I think could have won the race, hands down. That’s all that matters. So we’re gonna go and try to win at Stafford, and I think we’ll be fine.”
Lia finished 19th in the Miller Lite 200 and heads to Stafford Motor Speedway this Friday, August 11, for the New England Dodge Dealers 150.
