By Bill W
June 20, 2011 – Brady Bacon certainly proved he’s back on track and ready for a trip to the Pacific Northwest with the Lucas Oil ASCS National series in a couple of weeks. His tune-up was a two-night ASCS Lone Star/Sooner clash at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas last Friday and Saturday. The result was two solid second place finishes after starting four and five rows deep. He’ll take the next couple of weeks off to get ready for the trip out West.
A bad draw worked in favor of the Brady Bacon Racing #99 team with a heat race win from the back. “The track was slick for our heat on Friday,” says Brady. “It didn’t have a whole lot of water on it. It was good for the heat race starting that far back. We were able to move up through there. Actually, we were second, but the winner (Andy Shouse) got disqualified for the nose wing being too far forward.”
The half-mile was dry for the prelim feature on Friday night. “Of course, we drew eight in the redraw,” says Brady of his starting spot. “The bottom was where you needed to be in one and two. Tony (Bruce Jr.) started ninth and I couldn’t quite get down there before he did. He got to third on the first lap, and we were about sixth. We had to pick off the rest of the cars to get to him.”
The surge to the front continued, but one-lane racing started in. “It started taking rubber about ten laps in, and once I got behind (Bruce), it was locked down,” says Brady. “We had to hope he made a mistake and he never did. So we settled for second on Friday. I may not have made 26 laps, because my tire may have blown. It was pretty hard on tires.”
Track conditions were much different for the finale. “There was a lot of water on the track Saturday,” says Brady. “We drove from ninth to fifth in the heat. We were good; it was just hard to pass. We missed the redraw by one spot. We had our new motor from Wesmar that we had used at Eagle. We changed the cam in it, and it really brought it to life.”
The powerplant helped Brady from his ninth starting spot in the main event. “The bottom was best in one and two, and the top was good in three and four,” says the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver. “I caught a couple of bad breaks. I would pass a couple of cars and the caution would come out. Then it would take me five or six laps to pass them back.”
In the closing stages, Brady reeled in the leaders. “We got up to third, and there was a yellow with six to go,” he says. “I was able to get by (Joshua) Hodges for second, and got up to Joe Wood for the lead. I tried to slide him, but I was pretty short.”
A late caution gave him one more chance. “We had a yellow, and a green, white, checker finish,” says Brady. “I had a good run going into turn one. Actually, it was too good, because I had to check up a little bit. I was right on him in three and tried to slide him. He entered a little lower, and I wasn’t going to clear him, so I stayed on the bottom and settled for second. We could have used a little more time.”
Without a fellow owner’s help, Brady would not have been racing last weekend. “I have to thank Randy Washburn, who owns Zach Chappell’s car,” he says. “He let us borrow his trailer. Our toter home is getting worked on. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to race last weekend.”
Brady will use the next couple of weeks to get things ready before heading for the Pacific Northwest with ASCS. “We’re getting stuff ready to go North and West,” he says. “We’ll have a pretty busy summer from there on out, so we want to make sure all of our ducks are in a row.”
Follow Brady on his Website, Twitter and Facebook!
Follow Brady at his website located at www.BradyBaconRacing.com! Also keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter (which also can be accessed at the website) at the following links…
Twitter Link – http://twitter.com/BradyBacon
Facebook Link – www.facebook.com/pages/Brady-Bacon-Racing/278125555137
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