Heartbreaking 13th Place Finish For DJ Shaw At NHMS
Loudon, N.H. (June 26, 2010): DJ Shaw was on top of the world halfway through the K&N Pro Series East 125-lap event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Friday afternoon. After starting second in the field, Shaw led 19 laps in the first half and was saving his No. 60 Precision JLM Chevrolet for a shot at the win in the end. However, after pitting following a lap 81 caution, Shaw lost the handling on his machine and dropped back to a disappointing 13th place finish.
“I wanted to ride and save the equipment for the end,” said Shaw. “We changed right side tires and it was really tight. We lost 4/10th’s after having old tires. Everybody else gained an extra tenth by putting them on.”
Shaw rolled off the grid second after posting a blistering lap of 30.430 seconds in qualifying. Moffitt knocked him off the pole only three cars before time trials concluded.
“It was a little disappointing because I would have liked to have had my first pole, but we’re really happy with it because it’s better than I’ve ever done here before,” he said. “But I was totally surprised with my lap. We picked up about three-quarters of a second from practice.”
Shaw took the lead from Moffitt on lap three of the New England 125, where he remained until lap 21 when Moffitt returned the favor.
“I was just kind of on cruise control, and he wanted to go a little harder so I just let him go,” Shaw said of Moffitt’s pass for the lead. “I just settled in.”
Shaw remained a contender in the top-five during a long green flag run that went for 60 laps. After pitting, however, everything changed for the Precision JLM race team. Moffitt re-entered the race in the fifth position for a restart at lap 89, but fell back to ninth by the lap 100 mark. He continued to slide back until the race took the checkers at lap 125 with Shaw in 13th.
“We did everything routine,” said Shaw about his pit stop. “It’s all in the past now. It’s really frustrating because we were going so good. I think we were definitely capable of a top-three or better. It just didn’t work out for us today.”
The New England 125 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be broadcast on SPEED on July 1 at 6 p.m.
Shaw returns to action on Saturday, July 3 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.