Hayes Concludes Season With Top-10 Finish At Stafford

Stafford Springs, Conn. (October 13, 2008):Jamie Hayes posted an impressive ninth place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Series East finale at Stafford Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon. It was Hayes’ third top-10 finish of the season and his second consecutive top-15 behind the wheel of the Ken Schrader Racing owned #52 J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet.

“ Connecticut has never really been that great to me so to come out of here with a top-10 is not bad,” said Hayes. “We would have rather have had a top-five, but we’ll take this. I tried to ride around with people, wait for them to mess up, and roll on. We didn’t have a top-five car, but we finished where we probably should have.”

Hayes started the season-ending Carquest Fall Final 150 from the 20th position and knew after a short time that a pit stop was going to be in order. After a caution at lap 32, Hayes brought the J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet down pit road and to the attention of his pit crew.

“We did pit early because we were way too tight. I could baby it in and it was still tight so I knew we were going to be bad for the end. I came in and Jerry Babb made a good call on the wedge adjustment. That seemed to help the car so I could roll through the center a little better,” said Hayes.

Hayes restarted the race at the tail of the field, but didn’t give up too much track position. By lap 46, he was back to 20th and on the move. Nevertheless, the torrid pace of the leaders threatened to put Hayes a lap down on the 102nd circuit until caution came out in the nick of time. Hayes lined up 14th for the restart on lap 108 on the lead lap.

“I know the track has a tendency to get tight in one and two but I knew everybody was going to end up sliding up. We tried to save those front tires and tried to be real gentle on the throttle with the rear tires,” said Hayes. “We were just saving our car for the end.”

And that strategy paid off. Hayes, despite a tight condition in the closing laps, worked his way up to ninth before the checkers fell.

The Carquest Fall Final 150 at Stafford marked the end for the NASCAR Camping World Series East season. Hayes finished in the top-20 in points.

For more information, contact:
Penny Aicardi
(508) 234-8684
PennyBNS@aol.com