The UNOH Perfect Storm 150 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee (TN) pitted the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and Southern Modified Tour against one another on the high banks at Bristol. It was an all-star Modified race of sorts, and one star in particular, Andy Seuss, came into "Thunder Valley" with high hopes for a strong showing in front of a live television audience on SPEED.
Unfortunately, Andy Seuss's night at Bristol did not live up to the excitement that he and the Q Racing Oil/Glad Precision/MUA Dodge #47 team had going in.
After searching for a perfect setup on a different tire than last year's
UNOH Perfect Storm 150 in practice, Seuss was more confident about his chances for a strong showing in the feature after timing in 12th of the 38 cars that took time at Bristol in qualifying.
But at the drop of the green flag, Andy quickly noticed an issue under the hood. After trips to pit road trying to diagnose the problem, Andy soldiered through the event, despite being down on power throughout, for a 23rd-place finish.
"We had a skip in the motor that never really went away," said Seuss. "It is too bad; it was a great motor. Danny Glad builds some awesome power and it had the power. We really had something figured out going into qualifying and the first few laps of the race the car was really strong. We were happy with it, but it wasn’t meant to be."
Even though thie tough luck in this year's race at Bristol mirrored much of the 2010 season for Seuss, he nor his team know what "hanging their heads" even means.
"It is frustrating. We aren’t having the season like we did last year for sure, but we will come back and keep trying to win these races, and I guess that is all we can do.
"These guys work pretty good with Glad Precision Engines, so if I had to bet, by Saturday morning this motor will be on the dyno and they will have something figured out. This team has been through the ups and downs for many, many years. It isn’t something to get too upset about. It is one bad day having fun, that is all. Some days are better than others, and we will just go to Caraway and try to have a good day having fun."
Andy and the #47 will be back on track in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour on August 28th at Caraway Speedway in North Carolina. But first, he'll be at Seekonk Speedway in Massachusetts on Saturday August 21st with the Modified Racing Series.
