Andy Seuss drove the #47 Advance Auto Parts/Stuart Automotive sponsored car at Lanier National Speedway (GA) for the Nascar Whelen Southern Modified Tour race on August 30th. During practice his goals were to acclimate himself with the new track while also shaking out the car. At the last event at Caraway Speedway (NC), the #47 car had blown an oil line and suffered rear end damage with about fifteen laps to go in the race. The Riggs crew worked hard to get the car ready for this week’s race and it paid off with a top-10 finish.
Seuss timed 14th in a field of 17 cars at Lanier. This was not quite the performance the team expected though.
“The car did not time well”, said Seuss. “We were tight, which was a disappointment to us in qualifying. With the impound race rules and not being able to change we thought, maybe we would be ok with the car tight for the feature.”
The impound rule hurt the team since they were unable to tweak the car setup after qualifying.
“For what ever reason it (the car) loosened up pretty quick. We had what we had. If we were going to pit it would have been very early, but as we got deeper in the race we knew it was going to be very hard to make up those positions. On a track like this it is very hard to pass once the tires are worn. It is pretty tough to maneuver.”
Despite not being able to make a run at the victory, Seuss was satisfied after racing on a new track as well as being able to take the car home without wreck damage.
“I could not ask for more at a place that we have not been to,” explained Seuss. “At new tracks, sometimes we do good on them and sometimes we don’t. Today we did mediocre, but we will have something to build on when we come back next year. It is great to do it in front of a bunch of Advanced Auto Parts employees and companies that they deal with.”
