PETERSEN MEDIA
Shane Stewart closed out his 2012 American season at the World Finals over the weekend, and though he started it off well by qualifying excellent for both events on Thursday night, Friday and Saturday didn’t go as planned as he was un able to compete in either feature event.
With the very unique format of the World Finals, Stewart and his Indy Race Parts team were on kill Thursday night, as they qualified for the Friday and Saturday night programs.
In the culminating event for the “Greatest Show on Dirt”, 50 cars were checked in at the Charlotte Dirt Track, and Stewart proceeded to qualify second quickest for Friday’s event, before timing in 12th fastest for Saturday’s event.
Unfortuatnely for Stewart, that was the bright spot on a very rough weekend.
“We teamed up last weekend and won at Eldora, then came back and had a great night Thursday during qualifications,” he said. “Unfortuatnely it went down hill after that.”
On Thursday night, Stewart’s night was cut extremely short, as a heat race accident sidelined him for the rest of the night, as him and his Indy Race Parts team were forced to build a new car.
While racing with Dean Jacobs, Stewart fell victim to an errant slide job, and got into the fence, causing frame damage, thus ending his night.
After a night of thrashing to get a fresh Eagle Motosports car back together, Stewart hit the track with a national audience tuning in.
While running in the fourth spot during his heat race, Stewart was running the bottom of the track, and clipped a yellow infield block, sending his No.71 machine spinning out of the transfer spot.
Finally being scored in the ninth spot, Stewart was forced to go through the night’s Last Chance Qualifier, for one last shot at making the show, and unfortunately it ended with him on the hook, as he collided with Jason Sides, and was retired for the evening.
“I can’t thank all of these Indy Race Parts guys enough for their hard work this weekend,” he explained. “They were up into the early morning building a car after Friday, and Saturday we had a car that should have been in the feature, but unfortunately things didn’t fall our way.”
ON TAP: Stewart will now relax at his home in Indianapolis, IN before heading to Australia to chase after the World Series Sprint title with Monte Motorsports on December 1st. Stay tuned for more information on his Australian plans.
STAY CONNECTED: For all of the latest news on Shane Stewart visit his website at www.shanestewart.com,become a fan of his on facebook at www.facebook.com/ShaneStewartRacing, or follow him on twitter @ShaneStewart57.