Shaw Rallies To Ninth Place Finish At Gresham Motorsports Park
Jefferson, Ga. (August 30, 2010): DJ Shaw had to face a lot of hurdles at Gresham Motorsports Park Saturday night. He wrecked in practice, had a battery problem that further limited practice time, and then struggled with a tire problem throughout the second half of the American Fence Association 150. Despite being three laps down at one point, the 20-year-old Rookie-of-the-Year candidate was able to rally in the last five laps of the race and bring home a ninth place finish in his No. 60 Precision JLM Chevrolet.
“It was a good recovery from the day,” admitted Shaw. “It’s pretty exciting though. We were three laps down with 17 to go and I got all those laps back before the last green flag with five to go. No one gave up on this team today and I have to thank my guys. They worked really hard all day.”
The first two practice sessions were marred by a wreck and a battery issue that took up valuable track time for Shaw. The crew worked at fixing the damage on the No. 60 Precision JLM Chevrolet from the crash and then changed the alternator and battery to address the power problem. Qualifying, however, was going to be a gamble. Shaw had no idea what to expect.
“We had battery trouble all day so when I did my qualifying run my battery died and I didn’t get a clean run. We changed the alternator and we changed the battery, but we still had an issue in the race and it would still skip,” said Shaw.
Shaw earned an 11th place starting position with his qualifying lap, and felt confident with the car when he took the green flag. As the race went on, however, the No. 60 got tighter and tighter. He dropped back to 17th by lap 90 and decided to pit at lap 96.
“When we came in we didn’t know the tire was flat. We swapped the tire from front to rear to see if that would make it better, but when we went back out it was way worse,” he said.
Shaw stopped on the track in turn four at lap 121 and brought the caution out. The tire was flat and he would have to head back to pit road. After two trips to pit road, Shaw was now three laps down and in 16th place at lap 134.
The final 25 laps of the race proved to be a lesson in survival as they were marred with cautions and red flag periods. Fortunately, those yellows worked to his benefit and the Center Conway, N.H. driver was able to get all three laps back through the beneficiary rule. With five laps to go, Shaw, who said his car was as good as it was at the drop of the green flag, rallied seven positions in five laps before taking the checkered flag.
Shaw’s ninth place finish leaves him eighth in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East point standings with two races remaining. The next event on tap for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will be the New Hampshire 125 at New Hampshire Motors Speedway on Friday, Sept. 17. The American Fence Association 150 from Gresham Motorsports Park will air on SPEED on Thursday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. ET.