RAIN SHORTENS CHARLOTTE RACE AND LEFFLER’S VICTORY CHANCE

Jason Leffler had a race car capable of challenging for a victory Saturday night. However, Leffler and his Braun Racing contingent saw those chances literally do down the drain when the Carquest Auto Parts 300, NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina was halted 30 laps from its scheduled end by rain.

Driving the #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Toyota Camry, Leffler ran in the top five for most of the race, one that was delayed nearly two hours at the start by other rain showers than pelted the Charlotte area most of the day.

Despite qualifying 22nd fastest of the 43 starters in the qualifying session held earlier on Saturday, Leffler and Crew Chief Scott Zipadelli both knew that when night time fell on the 1.5-mile LMS racing surface that their Toyota was going to some to life.

Leffler qualified in racing trim rather than with a qualifying set-up in the daylight knowing that he would not qualify very well but would race effectively when the sun went down. These expectations were proven out quickly as the #38 Toyota improved nine positions to 13th over the first few green flag laps after the race began under the yellow as the track surface dried and cooler night time conditions began to take hold.

“Our car was far better over long runs and we may have had a shot for the win had we run those last 30 laps,” Jason explained. “(Kyle) Busch’s car wasn’t as good as it was during the first two-thirds of the race, and the longer we ran the better my car got. There’s no telling what may have happened had we run those final 30 laps under green,” he added.

What did happen though was yet another top ten finish for Jason and his consistent race team who together have now posted six straight top ten finishes and eight in the last nine races, three of which were of the top five variety including a pair of runner-up efforts.

It has moved Leffler up to third in the Championship Driver Point Standings and just 100 behind second place Carl Edwards and 173 shy of point leader Busch heading into next Saturday’s Heluva Good 200 to be run at Northeastern Supply Company’s “home” track – the Monster Mile at the Dover International Speedway in Dover, DE.

What also helped foil Leffler’s drive to what would be his first Nationwide Series victory since 2007 occurred late in the race at LMS when the lead-lap cars made their final pit stops of the night. That came between laps 144 and 150 when all but two of the lead-lap cars pitted under the green flag to change of tires, add fuel and make chassis adjustments. There were two exceptions, however, and it turned out to be decisive.

Veteran Mike Bliss, driving the #1 Miccosukee Resort & Casino Chevrolet from the Phoenix Racing camp, had not yet made hits final stop when on lap 150 the car driven by Kevin Hamlin crashed to bring out the yellow flag. That put Bliss’ machine as one of only two on the lead lap at the time with the Chevrolet of Brendan Gaughan being the other. Gaughan, driving for the team owned by retired NASCAR champion driver Rusty Wallace, had made a pit stop out of sequence earlier in the race and as a result was showing in the second position behind Bliss when the next-to-last yellow flag of the race was waved for Hamlin’s accident.

As a result, when the race was re-started on lap 164, nine cars including Leffler’s started in front of Bliss and Gaughan and at the time was showing on the tail end of the lead lap. The running order only changed slightly after that as the rain began to fall just five laps later. It resulted in the night’s last caution flag that did enable those nine cars to get their lost laps back because they were in front of Bliss. It enabled Leffler to maintain his streak this racing campaign of having completed every scheduled lap.

Jason had re-started the race following this incident in the fifth spot but did lose a couple of spots; one to David Ragan on lap 165. Leffler was able to re-take that position the lap before the rain starting falling and was credited for a sixth place finish while Bliss celebrated his first Nationwide Series triumph since 2004. Bliss’ other Series triumph ironically also came at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Gaughan was second followed by Busch, Leffler’s Braun Racing teammate Brian Vickers and young star Joey Logano.

“I’m a little disappointed that we weren’t able to re-start the race and run those final 30 laps,” said Zipadelli. “Everything was falling into place for us during the night and I really think Jason had something for them. That’s just going to have to wait for another opportunity,” Zipadelli added.

Saturday’s race at Dover is scheduled to take the green flag at 2:30 p.m. with ESPN2 to begin its live television coverage at 2 p.m. With Northeastern Supply to again host a bunch of its customers at this event, it certainly would be appropriate for that elusive Leffler victory to come at Dover.