Beaver Falls, NY (July 31,2005)
The Edge Hotel 150, held at the Adirondack International Speedway, proved to be a very frustrating night for Busch North Series rookie of the year contender John Salemi. After starting the race from 18th position, and making multiple pit stops throughout the event, Salemi was able to bring the #63 DelCorp Pontiac home in 15th position. John's second top 15 run in the last two races moved him up another spot in the points standings to 15th overall.
The day started off well for Salemi and the entire DelCorp team. After hearing the stories about the unique groove of Adirondack, John was happy to learn that the car was in the ballpark in the first practice run. "We were a little tight in the first session, but overall the car was decent. Other drivers had told me prior to coming here that this is a very unique track and it is nothing like anything else on the schedule. The fact that we had something good to work on helped me out a lot," John recalls.
Over the course of the two practice sessions, the team made numerous adjustments to the car and slowly brought John's lap times down. "We made a qualifying run in the last session, trying to solve some of our issues with that. It helped out a lot because I found out what the car was going to do on the real qualifying lap." Salemi was able to qualify on speed and ran the 18th quickest time.
John took the green flag for the Edge Hotel 150 and quickly moved up to 11th, as multiple cautions appeared in the early stages of the race. "We were a little tight right away, but wanted to stay out to get a feel for what the car was going to do on a long run. The early yellow flags made it tough for us to gauge what was going to happen." Unfortunately, the car got even tighter towards the halfway mark and Salemi fell back in the field. On the next caution, John brought the #63 car down pit road for an adjustment.
"We needed to free the car up in the turns, so we took advantage of the yellow and came in." The DelCorp Pontiac was a little better on the next run, but things quickly turned ugly for Salemi in the second half of the race. "We ran over something and cut down the right front. It took everything I had to keep the car off of the wall coming out of turn 4." The crew changed the tire and sent John back out, where he continued to battle a tight condition.
In the final stages of the race, John got tangled up with a lapped car in turn 4 and severely damaged the left side of the car. He had to pit multiple times under the yellow so the crew could pull out the fenders and check for cut tires. "The race started off well for us, but quickly went downhill. We had some bad luck tonight, but we will rebound at Stafford."
Even with the on-track issues, Salemi was able to bring the car home 15th and move up one spot in the standings to 15th. "We are getting better each week. We just need to keep working hard and moving up in the standings as much as possible."
The NASCAR Busch North Series returns to Stafford Speedway on Wednesday August 10th for the Inaugural Full Fender Wednesday. Sponsorship opportunities are still available with John Salemi. For more info please visit http://www.johnsalemiracing.com or email marketing@johnsalemiracing.com.
