|
CF Racing
BEAR LAKE, Penn. (February 18) - With a strong final push, Chub Frank gave himself something to smile about after a long week at Volusia Speedway Park.
'Chubzilla' charged forward from the 11th starting spot to finish second in Saturday night's 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series A-Main at the half-mile oval in Barberville, Fla., ending his frustrating Alltel DIRTcar Nationals experience on a high note.
"At least it'll make the ride home a little easier," Chub said with a smile after the finale of the five-race meet at Volusia. "We needed a good run to kind of give us a little boost and help our (WoO LMS) points deal. We didn't want to come out of here way behind."
After limping to a 15th-place finish in the 50-lap WoO LMS opener on Thursday night (Feb. 14) because nose and suspension damage forced him to make a pit stop while running seventh with four laps remaining, Chub found his rhythm on the eve of the Daytona 500. He steadily drove to the front in Saturday night's headliner, finally sliding his Lester Buildings/Corry Rubber/All Star Performance/Corry Laser/Slavic Corporation/Farr MotorSports/Lake Shore Paving/Custom Race Engines Chevrolet Impala SS Rocket Chassis No. 1* into second place on lap 43.
Chub was unable to make a serious bid to overtake eventual Billy Moyer following a lap-47 caution flag because he lost too much ground entering turn one on the restart, but he was satisfied with second.
"The car was really the same as it was Thursday night, but we just broke on Thursday in the holes (on the track)," said Chub. "Tonight we used the holes to our advantage. The holes weren't quite as big tonight and we just didn't hit 'em as hard, so we didn't tear up the front end."
The three UMP DIRTcar-sanctioned Super Late Model events that also made up the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals were forgettable for Chub. He failed to qualify on Monday and Wednesday - the first night a slide-job-gone-bad from Terry Casey in heat action gave Chub a flat left-rear tire that knocked him out of a transfer spot and left him very angry, and on Wednesday night he couldn't recover from a popped left-rear tire during his heat - and he registered a 27th-place finish in Friday night's 50-lap special after using a provisional spot to get in the starting field.
Chub, who finished second in the 2007 WoO LMS points standings, headed home ranked eighth in the 2008 standings after two events, 28 points out of the lead.
Chub's next scheduled start isn't until the WoO LMS 'March Through Dixie 100' on March 28-29 at Pike County Speedway in Magnolia, Miss., but he'll be busy in the interim. He'll put in plenty of shop time fixing "all the stuff we got torn up" at Volusia and will also have to find some spare hours to switch over to a new hauler and trailer, which he's expecting to take delivery of soon from S&S in Nebraska.
|
