After several nights practicing for Thursday’s race at Watkins Glen, my outlook on the event was less than a positive one. I felt that I just didn’t have the speed to be competitive based on everyone’s lap times. I struggled with deciding a race strategy as well.
When qualifying began I knew I needed to run a certain numbers of laps to run out the fuel before putting for fresh tires. At the end of the first lap, I got backed up and broke the car therefore would not get the fuel load where I wanted it at the end of qualifying. Regardless I was still able to qualify 4th.
When the green fell we knew we had to get by the cars on the harder tires. Fortunately we did achieve that right away. We ran 2-3rd most of the night until I took a little damage when I brushed the wall coming in to the front straight. But consistency and focus got us up to a 5th place finish!