From Peterson Media
With a busy Memorial Day weekend in front of him, Shane Stewart made the best of it by scoring a second and third place finish, after technical woes knocked him out of Saturday night’s action.
Kicking off his weekend Saturday night in the Gaerte/Norman No.3G, broken throttle linkage knocked Stewart out of the B, so the team set their sights on Sunday.
Back in action at Fremont on Sunday night, Stewart started his night off well as he timed the All Star Performance/XYZ backed entry in with the quickest lap during time trials, besting the 34 cars that were gathered in the pit area.
On what was a very slick, and racy surface, Stewart had his elbows up in heat race action, as he charged from his sixth starting spot, to score a third place finish, and transfer to both the dash and the feature event.
Starting fifth in the six-lap event, Stewart wasn’t able to make anything happen, and he finished in the fifth spot, putting him in the third row for the feature event.
When the 50-lap feature went green, Stewart quickly went to the high-side of the speedway as he worked up to the second spot, and chased after early leader, Dale Blaney.
Cautions began falling in Stewarts favor around the 20th lap, but he still wasn’t able to get up to pressure the driver known as the ‘low-rider’.
On the 46th lap Stewart had a huge run on the outside of turn four, and got next to Blaney, though Blaney moved Stewart up to the wall, and the Indianapolis, IN driver lost his momentum.
As the white flag flew, Stewart was all over Blaney, and made a final attempt to get past him, but as Blaney shut the door on him, Craig Mintz was able to sneak by, and Stewart settled for third.
“I wasn’t here to run second and sacrificed a spot there trying to win. Man I don’t know what George and Dale do but when it gets slick those guys are pretty tough to beat,” said Stewart beside his Gaerte Engines, XYZ Machining, All Star Performance, backed machine. “I can’t thank my guys enough. They worked hard for me. We had a little altercation. I actually yelled at them a little bit after the dash and I don’t ever mean to do that, but they kept working hard for me and they always give me a great car and I just came up a little bit short.”
Heading to the Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana on Monday night, Stewart hopped in the Indy Race Parts No.71 machine to take on the World of Outlaws.
A 15th place qualifying effort worked to Stewart’s advantage, as he started on the front row of his heat race, and drove to a win, putting him in the night’s dash.
Missing out on the invert, Stewart lined up ninth in the dash, but drove his way up to a fifth place finish, putting him in the third row for the feature event, for the second night in a row.
On the high-banked speed plant, Stewart was very good when the green flag dropped as he worked into the third spot, and chased after Donnie Schatz, and Chad Kemmenah.
Late in the feature event, Stewart brought the crowd to their feet, as he charged around Kemmenah to take the second spot, though Kemmenah did not want to give the spot up.
As the duo came to the line, it was Stewart beating Kemmenah to the stripe, and earning the second spot.
“I don’t get to race with the World of Outlaws that much, so it means a lot to me to run well with them,” Stewart said. “We had a great car, and we will hopefully run good again with the Outlaws next weekend.”
2013 BY THE NUMBERS- Starts-36, Wins-7, Top 5’s-18, Top 10’s-22.
ON TAP: Shane and the 3G Racing team will be in action this weekend for a pair of World of Outlaw events, kicking off Friday night at the Attica Raceway Park before heading to I 96 on Saturday night.
STAY CONNECTED: For all of the latest news on Shane Stewart visit his website at www.shanestewart.com or become a fan of his on facebook at www.facebook.com/