A Strong Top 20 for John Salemi at NHIS
By Scott Collins, John Salemi Racing (August 28, 2005)
Loudon, NH (9/16/05) NASCAR Busch North Series rookie of the year contender John Salemi came home with another strong top 20 finish in the rain-shortened Sylvania 125 presented by Lowes at the New Hampshire International Speedway on Friday afternoon. Rain once again was an issue at Loudon and the field was set by points. Salemi took the green flag from the 15th starting position and drove the #63 Pontiac to a 17th place finish. The race was another strong performance for the Nashua, NH native in his rookie season on the tour.
John was able to get a lot of solid practice time before the rain set in for qualifying on Friday. The practice laps were important because the #63 team came to Loudon with an entirely different package than for the July race. "We changed things up quite a bit on the car this time around at Loudon," said John. " We came with a different spring and sway bar combination. Hopefully, I will be able to drive the car a little better in the turns. In the past races, we have been too tight and cars were driving under me on every lap." Salemi quickly found out in practice that the changes on the car helped a lot and his lap times were consistently faster than in the practice before the July race.
The entire team was very optimistic for the race because the changes help out a lot. When the green flag dropped, the field was quickly shuffled around. "There were a lot of fast cars starting in the back because qualifying was rained out. Once those guys made their way up through the field, things began to sort out a little better," John recalls. Salemi found himself running in the 13th position for much of the first half of the race. "It was difficult to pass out there today. It seemed like everyone was running two, even three, wide all around me for entire race."
On a lap 60 caution, the team decided to make their pit stop and John brought the car to the attention of the crew. Salemi took on right side tires and a full load of fuel to get him to the end of the race. The crew made it a quick stop and got John back out on the track in 10th position.
Much of the second half of the race was run under the yellow flag. Multiple accidents slowed the field and Salemi had to drive through the grass in turns 3 and 4 to avoid one of them. Rain also became a factor as it was lightly misting at around the 100 lap mark of the event.
One the final restart, John restarted in 14th position on the outside of the grid. Unable to quickly get the car to the bottom, 3 cars were able to get by Salemi. A few laps later, the rain set in for good. The race was shorted by 6 laps and the last were run under yellow, giving John a 17th place finish. "I am pretty happy with our run today," said John. "This was my 3rd race at Loudon and the first time I have been able to turn the car. The changes that we made helped a lot and we seemed to have hit on something up here. I did my best to stay out of trouble and be there at the end. On the other hand, I felt the car was better than 17th. I wish the race would have been red flagged when that mist started on lap 100. We could have waited a few minutes and finished under green. We’ll go back and get ready for Dover next week."
John and the #63 team have a short week ahead as the NASCAR Busch North Series returns to action Friday afternoon at Dover. The MBNA Racepoints 150 is set to run at 4:45 on Friday September 23rd. Sponsorships are available with John Salemi racing. For information please visit the team website at http://www.johnsalemiracing.com or email marketing@johnsalemiracing.com
