Salemi Holds Onto 13th at Waterford After Flat Tire With 3 Laps to Go
Rochester, NH (8/20/06) In a season that has been full of ups and downs for second year BES driver John Salemi, top ten finishes have been tough to come by for the Nashua, NH driver. John has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time far too many times this season, heading into one of the toughest short tracks in the northeast. This time the wrecks weren’t a problem for Salemi, but a flat tire on a restart with three laps to go ruined a potential top ten finish.
Saturday night’s race marked the return to a track that played a major role in John’s success during his rookie season. “I like Waterford a lot, we ran very well down there last season. Mark has always run well at Waterford also, so we were all very hopeful going into the race.”
Once the green flag flew at Waterford, cautions were a common occurrence at the track. “This place is so tight and narrow that there is bumping going on the entire race. Its tough to even run two wide here. You have protect your position as best you can and stay out of trouble,” recalls John. “Track position is everything and we are all battling as hard as possible for the entire 150 laps.”
Salemi was able to keep the nose clean on the #15 Waste Management/BG Environmental/Daddy’s Hot Sauce/Dennis Ciotti Racing Products Chevrolet the entire night. “I had a few close calls, with cars spinning ahead of us. We managed to avoid the wrecks each time,” he said.
John was able to gradually move his #15 Chevrolet up into the top twelve by the 100-lap mark, and into the top ten by lap 125. “The car was pretty good all night. I wanted to keep the fenders on it, so we’d be there for the end. That’s exactly what we did and had a great finished lined up for us, when the right front starting going flat.”
On the final restart with three laps to go, John found himself running in the top ten. He quickly felt a problem with the right front tire when the green came back out. Salemi was able to keep the car out of the wall and limped around to finish the race in 13th position.
“Its tough on everyone, we have worked so hard this entire season and had a lot of strong runs ruined,” said John. “Each time we seem to get things going in the right direction, another problem hits us. We still ended up finishing 13th, but I am pretty disappointed in that. We’ll get back at it at Loudon.”
The NASCAR Busch East Series returns to action on September 16th at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The New Hampshire 125 will take the green at 12:10 pm on Saturday the 16th at the one mile oval. Sponsorship opportunities are available with the #15 team. For more info please visit the team website at http://www.johnsalemiracing.com or or email marketing@johnsalemiracing.com.
