Donny Wins Pole But Still Can't Find Luck at Thompson

Everything looked to be turning around for Donny Lia and the LMI #18 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour team at Thompson International Speedway. Donny started off the weekend with the best intentions of getting his 2006 season turned around after a series of bad luck in recent weeks. He went out and showed that he could get the job done despite the frustrating summer by winning his second Bud Pole of the season on Saturday afternoon for Sunday's Modified Mania 150-lap WMT feature.

Unfortunately, that's where the good news ended for Lia and the #18 team. He raced as close to the front of the field as he could, including inside the top-10 for the early part of the race, but the handle eventually went away as the race wore on.

Still, Donny was close to the top-10 in the closing laps, but a skirmish up front cost him valuable track position, relegating him to a 19th-place finish.

"We just adjusted wrong for the race," said Lia. "Things didn’t go our way today. Someone was bonzaiing someone ahead of me and they got together. It looked they were all going to check up and pile in. I checked up, got on the brakes real hard and got up in the loose stuff. I was just stuck up there. Things weren’t the same after that."

If there is one place to get the ship righted, it could very well be next weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway for the New Hampshire 100. Earlier this season, Lia was en route to an extremely strong finish before a motor problem cost him a chance to race for the win.