{"id":24153,"date":"2018-09-28T12:44:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=24153"},"modified":"2018-09-28T08:44:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:44:40","slug":"palmer-prepares-for-late-model-stretch-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2018\/09\/palmer-prepares-for-late-model-stretch-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Palmer prepares for Late Model stretch run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Palmer prepares for Late Model stretch run<\/strong><\/p>\n

WATERFORD \u2014 There\u2019s one thing a driver needs when he\u2019s in a tight battle for a track championship \u2014 more speed.
\nThat\u2019s what Jason Palmer is looking for as the New London-Waterford Speedbowl Late Model title chase goes down to the final three races of the season, including Saturday\u2019s 30-lap feature.<\/p>\n

Palmer\u2019s lead has been chopped to one point over Anthony Flannery with 90 laps left in the season.
\n\u201cWe just got to do our homework,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cOur car has to get a little better. I don\u2019t think we have a bad car. We just have to come up with a way to get more out of it. We\u2019re looking for overall speed.\u201d\u201d
\nFlannery, meanwhile, has been on the hottest streak of his Late Model career with four wins in his last five races.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think Anthony was that fast early in the year, but he\u2019s figured out something,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cNow we\u2019re playing catch-up.\u201d
\nPalmer says it\u2019s tough to play catch-up because of the unpredictable nature of a Late Model.
\n\u201cSometimes you don\u2019t know that things are wrong with the car until you need it on a restart with three laps to go,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cIt tough to know how a car is going to going to react.\u201d
\nPalmer said that speed is important, but it isn\u2019t the only factor that comes into play when trying to win races.
\n\u201cLast week we were good on the stopwatch,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cWe were better on time. But we couldn\u2019t race with the car. You also have to be good on restarts and with racing side-by-side, and the car just didn\u2019t react quickly enough.
\n\u201cThe car needs to be strong everywhere. You have to be able to hold your car in one lane without scrubbing any speed off. It\u2019s a challenge.\u201d
\nWhen you\u2019re involved in a tights point race, every aspect of the car has to be perfect, including its durability.
\n\u201cDuring the last few weeks, we\u2019ve been spending extra time checking out the car, making sure nothing is wrong,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cWe\u2019re giving the car plenty of attention because we don\u2019t want something stupid to happen. We don\u2019t want to go crazy, but we want to make sure the car is as good as we can get it.\u201d
\nPalmer has been through the championship grind before. He has five Speedbowl championships, including one Late Model title (2015), three Wednesday Legends titles (2007, 2008 and 2009) and one Saturday crown (2009). So he knows what chasing the Big Trophy is all about.
\n\u201cEvery year is different and anything can happen,\u201d Palmer said\/ \u201cThere was one year I was leading going into the last week of the season and I finished third. And then there was one year I was second going into the last week and I won the championship.
\n\u201cIt all depends on the cards that you\u2019re dealt. \u201c
\nPalmer\u2019s sponsors includes Sign Pro, CWPM, Manafort Brothers, Pkon Projects, Gallagher Buick-GMC and Waddell Communications.
\n\u201cSo many things can go wrong, and so many things can go right,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cYou just have to be smart about it.
\n\u201cI just hope it comes down to clean, hard racing and let the best man win.\u201d
\nPalmer, who has 71 career wins, good for seventh on the all-time Speedbowl win list is hoping that the best man would be him.
\n\u201cWe found a couple of things with the car last night and they might have been holding us back,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cThis is a lot like a game of poker. You don\u2019t want to show all your cards too soon. But I think we have something good coming.\u201d
\nPalmer usually does.<\/p>\n

Speedbowl scene
\nThe Late Model points battle isn\u2019t the only tight fight-taking place at the Speedbowl. Wayne Burroughs leads Jonathan Puleo by a mere two points in the SK Light Modifieds and Charles Canfield has a five-point edge over Doug Curry in the fight for the Mini Stock crown.
\nIn other divisions, Kyle James leads by 29 points over Rob Janovic Jr. in the SK Modifieds point chase, Peter Bennett has a 29-point cushion over Scott Limkemann in the Saturday Legends battle, Shawn Gaedeke has a 36 point advantage over Jason Chicolas in the Sportsman chase and Duane Noll has a 28 point edge over Todd Taylor in his quest to win a third consecutive Truck title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Palmer prepares for Late Model stretch run WATERFORD \u2014 There\u2019s one thing a driver needs when he\u2019s in a tight battle for a track championship \u2014 more speed. That\u2019s what Jason Palmer is looking for as the New London-Waterford Speedbowl Late Model title chase goes down to the final three races of the season, including […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-waterford-speedbowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24154,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24153\/revisions\/24154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}