SEVERAL HUNDRED CUSTOMERS ENJOY A GREAT DOVER RACE WEEKEND TO OFFSET ACCIDENT THAT SIDELINES BOTH NORTHEASTERN RACE CARS

The icing on the cake for the Northeastern Supply Company and the several hundred customers and employees who attended the company’s Dover, DE NASCAR race weekend festivities May 30-31 would have been a winning run by one of the company’s sponsored race cars.

That victory failed to materialize, however, and heavy rain first delayed the start of the Heluva Good 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race by three hours. It failed to dampen the spirits of anyone however, as Northeastern Supply officials hosted one of its most successful race weekend shindigs in its 14 seasons.

The two Braun Racing Toyota Camry race cars (the #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Company machine driven by Jason Leffler and the #32 Dollar General/ABF U-Pack Moving/Northeastern Supply Company unit driven by Kyle Busch) were running in the eighth and ninth positions, respectively, and eyeing strong finishes during a lap 168 re-start when disaster struck.

Leffler lost control of his race car coming through the second turn as Busch was going high to make a pass. Leffler’s car jerked up the track and caught Busch’s car in the left side door sending both cars spinning and then crashing hard into the outside retaining wall.

The incident obviously foiled any hope either driver had at tracking down then leader and ultimate race winner Denny Hamlin over the final 32 laps, but it also dropped them to finishes of 27th (Leffler) and 28th (Busch) as both machines were too badly damaged to try and repair with so few laps remaining.

“I need to apologize to everyone on both teams and our sponsors,” Leffler said when interviewed by radio in the garage area after the accident. “I just lost it (control of the race car) when I went into the corner and I simply over-corrected trying to straighten the car up and got into the side of Kyle’s car. It was my fault, and it is a shame because we both had really good race cars today,” added Leffler.

Despite the disappointing finish, Leffler managed to remain eighth in the championship driver point’s standing but lost a bunch of points and now trails leader Clint Bowyer (who finished 9th in the race) by 394 heading into next weekend’s race in Nashville, TN. Busch, who was second in the standings coming into Dover, stayed in that spot but now trails Bowyer by 121 markers after the 2008 season’s 14th race of the 35 scheduled.

Leffler still was a star in the eyes of the Northeastern Supply Company and its customers, visiting large groups twice during the weekend to talk racing and sign autographs. “Braun Racing is thrilled to have such a good company as Northeastern Supply sponsoring our race cars, and I am really excited by how well received my teammates and I were during the weekend,” said Leffler who with his crew broke bread and first spent significant time with guests on Friday evening.

Jason re-visited a larger group in the Northeastern Supply hospitality tent on Saturday morning, talking about his race car and answering a host of questions from impressed guests before heading back inside the track for the race that ended up being held up by the heavy rains and winds that pelted the area just prior to the race’s original 3 p.m. starting time.

“The rain obviously reduced the size of our group by the time the race started, but Jason and Kyle both drove their tails off and did us proud,” said Northeastern Supply Company President and CEO Steve Cook.

“Both drivers drove hard and passed a lot of cars during the race and never seemed to be bothered too much when they were running back in the field after pit stops. They had all of those from our group who remained for the race standing and rooting for them, and we’re not going to let that accident diminish the overall success of the weekend. Jason left a very good impression on everyone for how well he interacted with the group during his appearances, and we know he and other Braun Racing drivers are going to continue winning races for us this season,” Cook added.

That may come next Saturday when the Nationwide Teams converge on the Nashville Superspeedway’s 1.33-mile concrete oval for the running of the Federated Auto Parts 300. The green flag is set to drop on the event at 7:30 p.m. EDT with ESPN2 to televise the activities live.