Pit Strategy Goes Awry For Fadden Racing’s Jonathan Smith At LRP

Lakeville, Conn. (July 5, 2010): A mid-race pit strategy foiled a top-10 run for Fadden Racing’s Jonathan Smith in the NASCAR K&N 100 at Lime Rock Park Saturday afternoon, and relegated the No. 61 BaBoom! Energy Spray/Riondo Wine/Athlete’s of America Chevrolet to a 13th place finish after a solid performance race long.

“We were hoping to do a fuel mileage race and not pit, but it didn’t turn out like we thought. There were a lot of green flag laps. We came in to pit and right after that there was a six or seven lap caution period.”

Smith proved he was going to be a force to reckon with from the onset of the weekend. He was fast in practice and backed it up with a qualifying effort of 94.947 mph to earn a 12th place position on the starting grid.

Smith moved up as high as fifth place ten circuits into the race, and remained in the top six for the first 30 laps of the race. Smith started to fall off a little bit and fell back as far as ninth by lap 35. The team knew they had to readjust their pit strategy and come in. Cautions were happening few and far between, however, so the team opted to pit at lap 38. The caution they had been waiting for happened right after at lap 39.

“It was just misfortune,” said Smith. “It’s just one of those things. It could have easily played into our favor as well. It just didn’t this time.”

As the laps ticked off on the K&N 100, Smith began to lose grip on his No. 61 BaBoom! Energy Spray Chevrolet, and he lost a little more ground before taking the checkers in 13th place.

“We had a right rear tire going down,” said Smith. “Overall, I’m happy with today. We were strong the whole race, and I’m hoping we’ll be back soon.”