Loudon, NH (September 20, 2009): Despite a vibration in the No. 38 Bestway Disposal/Renton Coil Spring Chevrolet, Alan Tardiff was able to rally to a seventh place finish in Friday night’s Heluva Good Fall 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a NASCAR Camping World Series East event, and put together a lucky seven combination that tightened up his point race heading into the series’ finale at Dover next weekend.
Tardiff’s finish marked his seventh top-10 finish of the season and moved him up to seventh in the point standings, just seven points out of sixth place.
“It’s a mirror finish of June: we had a seventh place in both races. We’re pretty happy with it,” said Tardiff.
Tardiff started nineteenth after posting a qualifying speed of 122.762 mph Thursday afternoon, and moved up to 15th at the drop of the green where he remained until pitting at lap 15. He returned to the track to take the green at lap 18 in the top-20.
Tardiff picked up a vibration early in the race, but worked through it and continued to soldier on.
“The car had a lot of grip up on top and it was really comfortable. We picked off quite a few cars pretty quick. The car picked up a major vibration – again. We had one the last time we were here and the brake pads crystallized on us. This time, I don’t know what happened, but I breathed on the brake pedal and it was just shaking the whole car around going around the corners,” he said.
A caution flew at lap 30 with Tardiff in the 14th position for the restart. In less than 10 laps, Tardiff had wheeled the No. 38 Bestway Disposal/Renton Coil Spring Chevrolet up to ninth before the caution slowed the pace once again. Pit stops allowed Tardiff to gain two spots under the yellow and the team would restart the race from the seventh position.
The Lyman, Maine native maintained the seventh place position despite developing a throttle-loose condition in the latter stages of the race. He dropped back to tenth by lap 70. When the race went green at lap 92, Tardiff had dropped all the way back to 12th. He gained two more spots before caution came out yet again.
NASCAR shortened the race to 100 laps after rain delayed the start by 40 minutes, and decided to shorten it up to 99 laps because of darkness. The final restart came at lap 97 where Tardiff rallied in a two-lap dash to the checkers to cross the line in seventh place.
“I just held on to it. It got wild at the end, but I was able to gain a few spots,” said Tardiff. “It was hard to make a run going down the straightaway with the car getting throttle loose, but we just held on to it. It was a good points day for us and good effort by everybody on this team. We’ll take it and move on to Dover.”
The Bestway Disposal/Renton Coil Spring Chevrolet and driver Alan Tardiff will return to action on Friday, September 25th for the Sunoco 150 at Dover International Speedway. The event marks the season finale for the NASCAR Camping World Series East 2009 season.