It was another night of Florida Speedweeks and another top finish for Andy Seuss and the #70 One Stop Toy Shop team at New Smyrna Speedway on Wednesday. Seuss finished sixth in the 50-lap feature, but he did it the hard way after starting 10th and having to come back from an early race incident.
Seuss may have had a disappointing qualifying run, but he was determined to make it to the front of the field Wednesday night. Seuss started 10th and had picked up three spots by the third lap. He was involved in an early crash with Jimmy Blewett but bounced back to finish a strong sixth.
“We made it fun tonight,” said Seuss. “We kind of missed it in qualifying and we got into trouble early just by being in the back. We came into the pits so we had to restart last. We made it back up to sixth but we had to use our stuff up getting there. I didn’t really want to run that hard at the beginning of a 50 lap race.
“By the end I didn’t have anything left to get up to Robby
Summers. I could catch up to him but I couldn’t pull it off. We’ll take it. Sixth place is fine. We have a little bit of work to do on the front end but we’ll be alright.”
The incident with Blewett did not harm Seuss’ car much. The only damage was a mangled front bumper.
“He didn’t go on the restart and I got into him. I checked up but I couldn’t stop. I got the back of the car lifted right up in the air. It was nothing intentional. I guess his spotter talked to my spotter. We could’ve done without it but I guess that’s just racing. Who knows what we could’ve done if we had started up front and didn’t have to use up our tires.”
Seuss maintains third in the Speedweeks Modified standings with his finish. He is currently ranked right behind NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour drivers Eric Beers and Chuck Hossfeld, with Donny Lia and John Blewett, III on his tail.
There will be three more nights of racing at New Smyrna Speedway before the 2006 version of Speedweeks is in the history books.
