June 16, 2009

Roller Coaster Ride for All Star Action in PA

With a new driver and crew chief working together the Keen Motorsports team ended their weekend on a good note.  Despite having a rough start to the weekend Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway the team now feels they are on the right track to success.  

Friday night saw the team struggle with their qualifying efforts timing in a disappointing 25th position.  The nightmare continued as the team finished 7th in the heat and 5th in the B main.  “When you qualify that bad and put yourself in a huge hole at the beginning of the night it is hard to regain your momentum,” said Pittman after the race Friday night.  “We feel really bad that we were not competitive tonight and even though the track was fairly wet and hard to pass we still need to be a lot better,” said Daryn. 

Saturday night the Hunter Truck Sales team had a respectable 7th position in their qualifying efforts.  The team had a fourth place finish in the heat wrapped up before contact with a car caused a piece of the nose wing to fall off and a yellow throw for our debris, therefore sending us to the rear with only 2 laps remaining.   After a long rain delay the Keen team lined up second in the B main and finished second.  The finish resulted in an A main start inside the sixth row.  After swapping positions several times in lap traffic the #17 Peterbilt team ended the night with an 8th place finish.  “You have to give credit to the track crew for getting this race in tonight.  They did a great job redoing the track after the rain.  It was fast in the A main.  I feel that we made some improvements tonight, but still have plenty of room to make this team better,” stated Pittman after the action. 

Sunday saw the boys heading to the Central PA Speedway for more All Star action.  Pittman timed in 10th position out of 33 cars.  The #17 Keen team lined up fourth in the heat and finished fourth, this meant the team qualified for an 11th place starting position.  The good qualifying effort made the team eligible for the All Star dash.  “We started 6th in the dash and finished 4th.  I feel like we learned a lot about the track and it was a good hot lap session for the A main,”  stated Daryn. The All Star dash does not reflect starting position for the A main as it only adds points for the year end All Stars point fund.  The Shell Rotella T , JEI chassis lined up in the 11th position in the A main and quickly gained ground on the competition.  After several yellows and a fuel stop the Keen Motorsports ended the night in 2nd place.  The best finish yet for Daryn and the team.  “We feel  we made huge grounds this weekend.  We ended on a positive note with the second place finish.  Matt & I will work this week getting things ready for Ohio Speedweek.   I feel like we are off to a better start and each night we race we learn more about what we need to do to make this car better,”  stated Pittman.

The team will again load the Peterbilt and hauler this week and head to the All Star Ohio Speedweek next Friday night starting at Attica.  “I think starting next Friday we have like 15 races in 17 days that is a lot of racing.  We will need to have everything ready for action to make it easier the next few weeks.  The team will do detailed maintenance this week and load all of the spares in the trailer.  It will be a busy week and an especially busy month, but I love to race and the more we race the better” stated Pittman.

The Keen Motorsports team would like to thank Peterbilt, Hunter Truck Sales, Shell Rotella T, and all of our product sponsors for their continued support.