After a dismal night at Lake Erie, the LMI team welcomed a week off to regroup. Last Saturday night they headed south to Wall Township Speedway for the Busch 150 with renewed confidence. As the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series moved into the season’s halfway break they were hoping to put their troubles behind them and start off on the right foot for the second half. But it proved to be further bad luck for a team that has experienced more than their share in 2004.
The Mobile Management/Huntington Honda #18 was quick in practice and hopes were high for a good qualifying effort. Donny posted the third fastest time trial lap. When he redrew the pole position for the race things appeared headed in the right direction.
Donny grabbed the lead at the drop of the green flag. Reggie Ruggiero in the Dick Barney #41 had his eyes firmly set on the lead and took over on lap 2 with an aggressive move down the backstretch. Donny let him go and settled into second. He was keeping the big picture in mind and setting a comfortable pace that would ease any concerns about tire wear later in the race.
All was according to plan in the early stages of the event. Running up front proved to be fruitful as Donny managed to avoid a massive pileup that started behind him when fifth place Doug Coby spun sideways in turn three on lap 39. Ruggiero was setting a quick pace and Donny stuck to his gameplan of taking it easy until it counted. As the race approached the halfway mark there were signs of optimism in the LMI pit area.
But once again disaster came out of the shadows to strike down any thoughts of a top finish. On lap 70 Jerry Marquis made contact with another car and was running very slowly up against the wall on the backstretch. Leader Ruggiero cleared the scene without incident and Donny was following in his tire tracks. Suddenly Marquis’ crippled racecar swerved sharply to the left, slamming into the right side of the #18 and causing some severe damage. Donny limped to the pits as Kevin Crowley and the crew prepared to make some lengthy repairs. They did eventually return to the racetrack many laps down and nursing a bent-up car to finish 22nd, some 65 laps down. As the driver and crew surveyed the damage after the race, looks of disbelief were abundant.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Donny. “It’s the same thing every week. We can’t seem to shake our bad luck. Tonight we were running second and just biding our time, hoping to save our tires and make a charge at the end of the race. I saw Jerry Marquis running slowly up against the wall on the backstretch and went to the inside to get by him. When I got next to him all of a sudden his car just turned left into the side of me. I don’t know what happened to him, maybe something broke on his car, but he hit us pretty hard. That was pretty much then end of our night.
“It’s very discouraging. With the exception of Lake Erie, we’ve had a pretty good racecar at each race. But something always seems to go wrong and we end up a victim of bad luck, in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not anything we can control. Kevin and the crew are working very hard and giving me a good car to drive. But we’ve got this black cloud over our heads and we can’t seem to get out from under it. If it weren’t for bad luck, we would have no luck. If anyone has any ideas on how to change that I’m willing to listen. Until then all we can do is just keep plugging away and wait for it to turn around. Hopefully it will happen soon.”
