Hayes Brings Home Top-15 Finish From Dover For Ken Schrader Racing

Dover, DE (September 20, 2008):

Jamie Hayes, driver of the #52 J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet, battled a tight handling racecar throughout most of Friday’s Sunoco 150 at Dover International Speedway, but still managed to post a 15th place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Series East event Friday afternoon.

“The car was too tight under throttle the whole race,” said Hayes. “ Dover is a tough place to go, and when you’re off a little bit there, it makes for a really long day.”

Hayes started the weekend on a high note with a qualifying effort the team was happy with. They earned a 21st place starting position and immediately jumped up to 18th in the first dozen laps. Hayes was confident that with a minor adjustment, the Ken Schrader race team would be a contender for a top-10 finish.

Caution came out on lap 54 and set up the first round of pit stops by the lead lap cars. Fuel and an adjustment were the order of the day.

“We over-adjusted,” admitted Hayes. “I take the blame for not communicating what the car needed as well as I should have. The car was just too tight after that.”

Hayes restarted the race from the 20th position and couldn’t get the momentum he needed to make a charge through the field. The teams focus now had to shift to trying everything they could to stay on the lead lap.

“ Dover is such a momentum track and it’s such a high-speed track that my main goal became staying on the lead lap,” said Hayes. “We ended up going a lap down and then we fought the rest of the race trying to get our lap back. It got a little crazy out there on the track so we had to worry about staying out of trouble and not getting caught up in other people’s messes.”

Hayes pitted a total of four times trying to improve the handling of the J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet. He took on four tires and made a wedge adjustment in hopes of freeing it up.

“We were just playing catch up all day, but I think we did all right considering. Fifteenth is a respectable finish. The team did a really great job, and considering it was the first time the crew chief and I had worked together, we developed at least enough rapport or chemistry to work through it. Overall, at the end of the day, when you’re fighting the car like that there’s not much you can do.”

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Penny Aicardi
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