Donny and the LMI crew headed west to beautiful Lake Erie Speedway last Saturday night filled with optimism for the night’s 150-lap NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series event. That confidence was bolstered by a strong qualifying effort. But all hopes were quickly dashed in the race as Donny struggled from the drop of the green flag, eventually finishing well back in the field.
In practice Donny was consistently among the quickest cars. He backed that up with a strong qualifying run, posting the fifth fastest time trial lap. In the redraw for starting positions luck was on Donny’s side as he gained two more position by picking the third spot. It looked like everything was in place for a stout run in the feature.
But optimism quickly turned to despair. Right from the drop of the green flag Donny had his hands full with an ill-handling racecar and he quickly fell back in the field. Under an early race caution the team tried to make adjustments, but to no avail. That left Donny with the unenviable task of wrestling with the car to the checkered flag. He did his best but could only muster a 22nd place finish, five laps down.
“I have no explanation for what happened tonight,” Donny shook his head. “The car was way too loose right from the drop of the green flag. I just couldn’t step on the gas at all. We pitted and tried to make some adjustments but the rules prohibited changing tires so we were pretty much stuck with what we had. All I could do was hold on and try to nurse the car home to the finish. Believe me, that wasn’t an easy job. I can’t remember being so glad to see a race end. We’ll have to take the car apart when we get back home and find out exactly what the problem was. I never want to go through another night like this.”
