16-year old Team Full Throttle racer Matt Barndt’s day at Jennerstown Speedway didn’t start off as he’d planned it, but the team overcame a tech officials’ mistake and charged from the thirteenth starting spot to finish third in the 100 lap Late Model feature on the fast ½-mile Pennsylvania track.
“This is just incredible, ” said a smiling Barndt after the race. “We had a really long day. We went through tech prior to qualifying and they measured the tracking width on the front end of the car. They told us we were an inch too wide. We couldn’t imagine how that could be the case, and had no adjustments we could make to the car to make it any more narrow.
We decided to put left side tires on the right side of the car for qualifying so we’d pass tech, and we knew it was going to make the car push in the turns. We didn’t qualify well, and when we went back through tech all of a sudden we were an inch and five eighth’s too narrow! It turns out they had put the template on our car improperly when we went through before qualifying, so we had to scramble to change everything back to where it was and get the car ready for the feature. The team did an awesome job, because we had a perfect race car for the race! ”
Commenting on the feature, Barndt says his approach to driving changed for this race and it definitely worked out in his favor. “I was a lot more patient this week. I sat down after our first couple of races and told myself that I needed to do something a little different. Last week we got ninth, and today I knew I had 100 laps to get to the front. So I just decided to take it easy. When I saw cars in front of me banging on each other, I stayed off them a few car lengths and waited for them to wreck or settle down. I missed a few wrecks doing that today. Mike and Tom from Team Full Throttle preach patience to us drivers all the time, and it definitely worked out today. I was right on the bumper of second place going across the checkered, and I believe we were faster than the leader as well. This is definitely something we can be proud of. I know I’m still learning, so we’ll have good weeks and bad, but hopefully more good than bad! ”
Galaxy Motors, Junkyard Dog Industries, Roland and Roland, Inc., Sabelt, Ringers Gloves, ISC Racer’s Tape, Butler Built Seats, Auto Meter, National Auto Stores, ARCO Protection Systems, Deichman Walker Chevrolet, Hammerhead Promotions, Impact Racing, Automotive Technicians Alliance, and Team Full Throttle are all marketing partners for Matt. Matt is a member of the Team Full Throttle NASCAR Driver Development Program and is represented by Driver Development Services, LLC of Charlotte, NC.
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