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JR Heffner parks his modified for a shot at ARCA Racing.
It’s always more fun to watch a race when you have someone to cheer for. With JR Heffner starting in the sixth row, what better way to watch the race then from his pits cheering for one of our dirt racers?
They were pitted in stall 43, which is the closest to turn four. I thought that was fairly smart. JR doesn’t have a lot of experience in races like this, so giving him a stall where he can ease in, and then drive out and see most everything in front of him was a great idea.
Heffner held his own at the start of the race, but it wasn’t long before he got stuck in the middle of a three wide situation. He survived that and ran on the outside, but actually looked to the middle again on lap four.
Shortly after Heffner makes contact with the car beside him (totally racing deal), and bounces down the track and into the 12 car of Alli Ownens. Alli spun through the infield, but she didn’t hit anything.
It was actually fairly exciting under caution. The crew asked Nathan to take a zoom shot of his left rear to see if there was a tire rub. The team decided it was ok, and they left him on the track.
Dave Chenette was acting as crew chief on the wall. Chenette is a suspension specialist with DEI, and with that affiliation they were able to get the Nationwide NAVY team to service the car.
The car he raced was apparently brought to Daytona in July as a back up car for Martin Truex.
On that restart he was around Bobby Gerhart who’d won the last three Daytona ARCA races, but he couldn’t stay with him. Heffner maintained contact with the front runners, and his group caught the lead pack. He was running solidly at the back of the lead lap cars at that point.
When another caution came out around lap 23, the strategy was to do what the leaders did. The leaders pitted, and the word was give for Heffner to come in. I think at this point there was reference to Dave being so nervous he was going to puke in his hat, but he didn’t.
JR hit his mark perfectly, and the pit crew did a great job to get him back out with the others. Heffner actually commented over the radio how amazing it was to sit in the car while that crew went to work.
Heffner was set to restart 22nd, and he was right behind Frank Kimmel. He had an excellent drafting partner.
Coming to the restart Heffner left about five car lengths between himself and Kimmel. He did that on most restarts, and by the way the drivers stack up it was likely a sound idea.
According to the team they’d pitted about three laps earlier than they had intended. They felt confident they could make it the distance had they pitted on lap 28, but they’ll need more cautions if they are to reach the finish on this tank.
Their hope for more cautions came true, but unfortunately Heffner was involved. The big one started in turn four with one of the front runners getting out of shape, and just about everyone else tangling in the mess.
Heffner tried driving through the melee, but contact from the car behind him sent him spinning down onto the paved apron. It might have been a blessing.
Heffner drove the car straight onto pit road, and the damage actually seemed fairly minimal. The front valence was kicked in, but otherwise everything seemed workable.
While on pit road the red flag flew, and it was likely the perfect situation because it gave the crew time to get their tools together, and prepare the new valence.
With replacement valences, rivets, and drill prepared the crew was ready to get to work. The field sat on the backstretch, and as soon as the yellow was displayed the crew buzzed with activity. The new valence went on, the fenders were worked out where they needed to be, and the car was serviced with enough fuel to reach the end. Heffner pulled from his pit stall with the pace car in turn four. It was an amazing sight.
The car was aerodynamically sound, and after one or two more pit stops to verify their work everyone seemed confident they were ready to race again. Heffner restarted 12th on the field.
More trouble for Heffner came on lap 39 when a left rear tire went down coming out of turn four. Not only was there no caution, but Heffner had to limp all the way around the race track to get back to pit road while trying to keep the left rear fender on the car.
Heffner makes it to pit road, but they lose two laps to the leaders in the process. It could be a long day from here.
Turns out Heffner will restart as the second car laps down to the leader. They need the lucky dog. Heffner restarted at the back of the lead lap cars. They decided cutting a tire amongst the leaders was a bad idea, and it appeared the lucky dog would come their way when the next yellow flew. Again – sound thinking.
Heffner settled into a small drafting group and ran with the 90 car for a number of laps before the next big wreck slowed the action on lap 54. JR is two laps down, but hes the second car that’s two laps down…and nobody one lap down. He will be eligible for lucky dog passes, but it depends howthe race plays out.
Heffner elected to restart at the back of the lead lap cars rather than up the inside with the lapped cars just in case they cut a tire again. He’ll get the lucky dog regardless, so the track position won’t hurt him.
Heffner gets the lucky dog, and they pit for right side tires and fuel the next time by. He now runs one lap down to the leaders with about 20 laps to go.
For the tenth time or so, Dave Chenette mentions he may throw up in his hat. He’d been pacing the pit wall throughout the day, but so far they’d done a great job of keeping Heffner in contention.
In a race within the race Heffner had to worry about the 60 car because both were one lap down. With a caution in the next ten laps, one of them would get back on the lead lap.
Heffner was unable to stay with the 60 car, and hope was dwindling to get back on the lead lap. He settled into a three car draft, and gained valuable experience through the next series of laps.
The race remained under green flag conditions to the checkered flag, and Heffner finished a respectable 16th. The team seemed satisfied, and Chenette said their goal was to finish, and they definitely accomplished that.
Heffner on the other hand was disappointed.
“I’m happy with the help we got,” he said after the race. “My goal was a top five.”
When asked about the wreck and how things compare to a dirt modified event…“I saw a lot of things happening, and I saw an opening,” he said. “I waited a couple of seconds to go low, and I got tagged from behind.“What you have is a lot of smoke and fenders. When the smoke is up you can’t see.”
I asked what Heffner’s future plans were.
“It’s a matter of what we can put together for a program,” he said. “We really had a good program for this race. I talked to our regular crew, and I cleared it with them.
“They were all for trying this. I got together with Dave Chenette, and he helped us get a car and put it together. He crew chiefed it this weekend, and he put together an outstanding crew. It’s a lot of fun to be in the car and see a pit stop happen so fast.”
In the end Heffner seemed truly disappointed, but with the rest of the crew smiling and seemingly satisfied we have to think the journey wasn’t a total loss! It was great to watch one of our modified stars compete on a pretty big stage. |
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