After a bittersweet effort at New Smyrna, which featured some highs and some lows, Donny and the Lia Motorsports team felt they were ready to prepare for the 2004 NASCAR Featherlite Modified season. A few weeks later those plans were disrupted by changes in the crew. The search for a new crew chief began and a short time later Donny chose to hire veteran Kevin Crowley as his new crew chief. The reorganized crew went to work and by the practice at Thompson before the opener they felt like things were right on course. The results from the practice proved they were right.
Headed to Thompson last weekend for Icebreaker 2004 the team was poised for a strong performance. Pre-race practice yielded positive results and they backed that up with a solid qualifying effort, posting the ninth quickest lap. After making a few changes to the car for the race, they were confident of a good finish to kick off the 2004 season.
After getting shuffled back at the drop of the initial green flag, Donny quickly settled into a top-ten position. The handling of the car was not what was needed, however, so when the caution came out on lap 33 the decision was made to make an early pit stop for fresh tires and some adjustments. Donny fell in at the rear and started a steady progression toward the front of the field. Showing great patience, he had worked his way back up to a position just outside the top-ten when most of the leaders pitted. On the ensuing restart he found himself a contender once more, up to fifth place.
He quickly dropped one spot to sixth but then settled into a rhythm and held his ground. The plan at this point was to set a comfortable pace and try to save his tires for a charge at the end. He gave up a couple of positions to other drivers with a more aggressive strategy, but was comfortably in eighth at the 100-lap mark. Shortly after a restart he found himself in a battle for fourth with Tony Hirschman and Chuck Hossfeld. Patience was still foremost on his mind, so he attacked cautiously. On lap 117 Donny drove under Hirschman for fifth and felt we was ready to make that closing run to the front.
After several cars up ahead got together on a restart, that gameplan quickly dissipated. Contact from behind had obviously adversely affected the handling of the car, and Donny was forced to hang on the best he could. The car was obviously no longer competitive, however, and the #18 began to slowly fall back. Donny tried to stem the tide as long as possible, but to no avail. At the checkered flag he found himself a disappointing 18th. Still, after the race he was able to keep things in perspective.
“Today’s race was a big rollercoaster for us,” he explained. “In the early going we just hung out in the top-ten while we sorted out what the car was doing. It soon became evident we were too free too early, so when we got a caution at around lap 35 we made the call to pit so we could correct the situation. We felt it was the right decision and when we went back to green we proved that it was. I was able to pass a bunch of cars and after the leaders pitted I found myself in fifth. Then on a later restart the guys up ahead of me checked up and I got nailed from behind. We won’t know for sure until we get back home and take the car apart, but I think something in the rear got bent from the hit because after that the car was completely undrivable. . So I just hung on and got what I could out of it, which turned out to be 18th. It was a major disappointment because I know we had a much better car than that until we got run into.
“But it was still a very promising weekend. The car was good and we ran up front. Whatever went wrong at the end, we’ll find it and fix it. The guys gave me a great pit stop. We made some changes on the crew recently, Kevin Crowley joined us as crew chief along with other new faces, and everyone worked well together. The finish may not show it but it was a positive experience. Hopefully next week at Stafford we will be able to show what we’re capable of at the end of the race.”
