NOTEBOOK: Quick Turnaround
Tardiff, LaJoie Tangle In Closing Laps While Battling For The Win
Loudon, NH — Alan Tardiff didn’t want to talk to Corey LaJoie after the race Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and LaJoie completely understood. Both drivers saw career days spin out of control — quite literally — while battling for the lead with three laps to go in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East New England 125.
LaJoie tried to get under the leader Tardiff on Lap 122 as the pair entered Turn 3 side-by-side, making contact and sending both cars into spins. Tardiff made contact with the outside wall and was done for the day.
“He was using me up a little bit, but I was giving him the lanes,” said Tardiff, who was making just his third start of the season. “I don’t know why he over-drove (Turn 3) — I think he thought it was the only chance he had to move me up the race track. But he just flat-out, cleaned-out turned me.”
LaJoie, who salvaged a 13th-place finish, accepted complete responsibility for the incident.
“He was there, and I got into him and spun him out and eventually spun ourselves out,” LaJoie said. “I hate to ruin two days like that.”
Tardiff’s best career finish was third at Tri-County Speedway in 2009, while he’d twice finished seventh at New Hampshire.
“I’m real mad at him, but if I was in his shoes, I’d probably try everything I could,” Tardiff said. “I wouldn’t wreck him, but I probably would rattle his cage a little bit. But I tell you, getting wrecked with two or three laps to go, whatever it was — my third race of the year, the guys did a great job — it’s just a hard pill to swallow.”
LaJoie was also making just his third series start of the season, having finished fourth at Iowa Speedway and eighth in the spring race at New Hampshire.
“I went over there and tried to talk to him and he don’t want nothing to do with me — and I probably wouldn’t want anything to do with me, either,” said LaJoie, son of Randy LaJoie, a two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion.
“Thirty laps into the race, I probably would have tucked in behind him — but we’re going for the damn win. I’m sure he’d have done it the same way back to me, and I probably would have been (ticked) off at him, too.
“I’m not going to say it’s a flat tire or I ain’t going to blame it on nothing. I just got in there hard and freaking spun him out, and spun ourselves out. Come around again, hell no I wouldn’t do it.”
Tardiff was relegated to a 25th-place finish.
CHAMPIONSHIP FORM: With his sweep of the two series races at New Hampshire, Ryan Truex extended his points lead over Darrell Wallace Jr. to 118 with just next week’s season finale at Dover International Speedway remaining.
Wallace encountered trouble when he was caught in an accident on the frontstretch during a mid-race restart, but he was able to rally back for a ninth-place finish.
“We were expecting to come in here like we did last time, but we came in with a different setup and the car was off a little bit,” Wallace said. “It just wasn’t there this race. On that restart, we got turned and we got in a big wreck.”
Truex needs simply to start the Sunoco 150 on Friday to clinch his second straight K&N Pro Series East title.
“This is why I think we can do it again. These guys work so hard and they give me awesome race cars. Every week, they just go right to the front. They make it easy to drive,” Truex said. “It’s been a pleasure working with Michael Waltrip racing.”
OILED DOWN: Ty Dillon, who won his first career race at Gresham Motorsports Park last month, fought to a 12th-place finish after making repeated stops for an oil leak in the first half of the race.
“We had a really good race car. We were running third and everybody kept seeing smoke on the straightaways and stuff,” said Dillon, the grandson of Sprint Cup Series owner Richard Childress. “We thought it was a fender rub at first, but it got worse. We came in, checked everything out and we had a cracked oil pan.”
After making repairs to the crack, Dillon had to work too hard to regain track position.
“I just pushed too hard trying to get everything back,” he said. “I used the tires up. I was just a little too loose.”
MORE BAD LUCK: Kevin Swindell continues to run up front in K&N Pro Series East races. And he continues to suffer bad luck.
Swindell led 40 laps Friday at New Hampshire, where he finished second in June, but fell back after a pit stop and was never quite able to get back to the front. He finished 11th.
He took his biggest hit on the first of two green-white-checkered finishes, when he restarted on the outside of the front row but was partially caught in a wrecked that claimed the car of Max Gresham.
“(Truex) spun the tires and I spun the tires, and we were about even — and I guess (Gresham) thought he was going to split us or something,” Swindell said. “With the rule saying that we can ‘free game’ it as soon as we get to the restart point and don’t have to stay in line until the start-finish line, I guess it kind of promotes people stepping out of line. He got excited, and that was the end of us.”
Swindell won two straight series poles heading into the weekend and then led the second-most laps Friday. Still, he’s winless on the year.
“In the last three races, I think we’ve proved by far that we’re the car to beat in this series,” Swindell said of his Dave Davis-owned No. 9 Chevrolets. “We’ll just keep plugging away.”
INJURY REPORT: Germain Racing crew member Mike Hillman Jr. was injured during the first round of pit stops in Friday’s race.
Hillman, who serves as crew chief for Todd Bodine in the Camping World Truck Series, underwent tests to determine the severity of injuries to his ankle.
“He is very hopeful he can be with the Germain.com Tundra team (for Saturday’s race),” according to a statement issued by the team.
Zach Germain finished 30th Friday.
Sources: Travis Barrett, Special to NASCARHomeTracks.com