After starting inside the top-three for the last four races, Phillip McGilton was looking forward to changing his short track luck and provide his Brewco Motorsports team with their fourth top-10 finish of the season in Sunday’s Hantz Group 200 presented by Federated Auto Care.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
Despite not surprising the ARCA regulars with strong runs in practice and ARCA SIM Factory qualifying, McGilton was ready to race while hoping to maneuver through the front row and lead his first laps of the season.
At the start, McGilton held his third place qualifying position keeping Michael McDowell and Justin Allgaier in his sights. An early caution kept the field in-check, but little did the Brewco team know the start of their problems was about to begin.
During the second caution of the day, McGilton’s No. 47 Midwest Equipment Ford Fusion stalled on the track forcing track vehicles to come to his aid and push his automobile back to the pits. The team encountered a battery failure forcing them to replace it while losing several laps to the leaders under green flag racing conditions.
The team corrected the problem in a timely fashion, but the damage had been done taking the rookie driver from contention of winning his first race. Despite the loss of laps, McGilton’s Ford remained strong and competitive. In fact, the car was quick enough to overhaul eight time ARCA RE/MAX Series champion on a restart to retain one of the lost laps.
With the carnage settling over Toledo Speedway, it appeared that McGilton would walk away with a satisfactory effort but a late race entanglement with another competitor would return the Brewco Motorsports machine to the garage for more repairs.
The team thrashed piecing the car back together and sent the Marion, Illinois native back into competition. McGilton would finish the race but record a 27th place finish.
“It just wasn’t our day, ” McGilton said after the race. “We had a good car, the car was fast, but I don’t think anyone anticipated having a problem with the battery. After we got that fixed, I thought we were going to have an okay day before I got together with another lap car. I hate the finish for my guys and our sponsors. We worked hard on this race from testing to practice and qualifying, but sometimes things just don’t go as planned. ”
With the performance on Sunday, the team slipped to sixth in the championship standings just 20 points from returning to the fifth position held by Justin South.
Next up for the ARCA RE/MAX Series is the return to Iowa Speedway. Before invading the track for the ninth race on the 2007 ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule, the team will enjoy a weekend off before returning to action for three straight weeks of racing. The second annual Prairie Meadows 250 is set for Saturday, June 2, 2007 at 8:00 PM live on SPEED. That’s a good thing. ”
| 
|