However, Hunt was confident and ready to make a statement.

When the green flag dropped Saturday night, Hunt patiently rode in the 25th position. For the first fifty laps of the race, Hunt rode easily, hoping to save his tires for the end of the race. After 70 laps were in the books and the caution flag bunched the field back up, it was go time for the 18 car. Within the first ten laps of the restart, Hunt had come from 25th to 18th. Sam was smooth behind the wheel, and setting up cars one by one as he made his way through the field. By lap 100, Hunt had charged to the 12th position, and was clearly one of the fastest cars on track. The race stayed green, and Hunt continued his charge. By lap 120, Hunt had worked his way to the 6th position. Unfortunately, Sam was half a track behind the leaders by this point. Hunt cut the leaders gap in half by the end of the race, and was two tenths faster on the stopwatch. Unfortunately, the caution never flew again and the 18 did not have a chance to contend for the win. However, the car crossed the line clean and in the 6th position at the end. This was a career best for Hunt. The 18 car was also awarded the Coca Cola Move of the Race for passing the most cars in the event.

Hunt on 6th place finish:

“Man, what a great night. We had such bad luck today and couldn’t catch a break, but we stayed confident and played it smart. It was so much fun being able to march my way through the field like that. I really wish we could have gotten a late race caution because we could have really contended for the win. However, the car is in one piece and we pulled out a really solid finish. Thanks to my whole team, The Denny Hamlin Foundation, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Stilo, and everyone else for the support. Looking forward to building on this and going to Richmond.”

Hunt had a bad draw in qualifying, being the third of fourty cars to qualify for the 36 car starting field. Sam did not let that bring him down, as he then became the first NASCAR K&N Pro Series driver to break the previous Bristol Motor Speedway track record with a lap of 16.04. (Previous held by 2012 polesitter Nelson Piquet Jr. at a 16.15) After sitting at the top of the board for the first twenty cars, Hunt was bumped off the pole by Ryan Gifford. As qualifying went on, the sun started to drop, and the track cooled down. By the time all cars had qualified, Sam’s lap was good enough to earn the 9th place starting spot.

“It was pretty awesome to put down a lap that fast so early in qualifying. Ive felt really comfortable in the car all weekend and I think if we would have gotten to go out near the end we could have challenged for the pole. Still, im so excited about the speed we have this weekend.”

When the Drive4COPD 125 went green, Hunt immediatley found a whole in the 9th spot and rode for the first 40 laps. After a bad restart on lap 50 set him back to the 12th spot, Hunt was able to find grip on the high side and work back to the 7th position by lap 75. The #18 Toyota Camry was headed towards a top ten finish, and was probably going to end up in the top 5. Unfortunately, on lap 81, the 7 car of Michael McGuire got loose under Sam coming off of turn 4, and did not check up. The 7 car hooked Sam at the start finish line, and Hunt slammed the inside wall nose first before sliding back up the track into the outside wall in turn 1.This crash ended Hunt’s day about 35 laps early, a huge dissapointment for both Sam and the team.

Sam on race and accident the following week:

“First of all id like to thank everyone behind me on giving me such an awesome opportunity to run up front at Bristol. It was almost the best weekend of my career and I hate that we couldnt end it. You know, after the race I think Michael (Driver of the 7 Car) knew how upset I was. It was a stupid move on his part, he junked not only my car but a few others. No one should ever be wrecked at the start finish line. I understand rubbing is racing, especially at Bristol, but it what he did was uncalled for. However, he did call me up this week and apologize for what he had done. He took responsibility for it like a man and he probably saved his some of his own sheetmetal by doing that. Although it doesnt fix my car, im glad we talked. Thats what im going to leave it at and whatever happens happens from here on out.”

After running the full 2012 season for Precision Performance Motorsports, Hunt is excited for his new venture. “I’m honored and excited to be a part of this endeavor, I can’t thank everyone who has helped put me in this position.  I had the opportunity to drive for an accomplished team last year and can’t wait to climb in the number eighteen Toyota this year. I’ve got to thank my family, Shayne Lockhart, Craig Oliver, Hoyt Overbagh and J.D. Gibbs for taking an interest in me and making this happen. We are hoping to find dedicated partners to help us run as many races as we can.”

DRIVE Technology is located twenty minutes from Hunt’s home track, Richmond International Raceway. The team is managed by veteran stock car champion Shayne Lockhart. DRIVE Technology’s equipment has been inherited directly from Joe Gibbs Racing. The team will work under the direction of Lockhart and Hoyt Overbagh, the longtime cup series chief engineer at Wood Brothers Racing.

“Over the past few years I’ve taken a real interest in the potential that Sam shows on the track. We are hoping to provide him with the best opportunity to expose his talent, and put him in a larger spotlight where more people can see what he has to offer. Off the track, he is everything that the sport needs. His unique attitude and down to earth personality wins over anyone who takes the time to talk to him. He is a professional young man.” Said Team Manager Shayne Lockhart.

DRIVE Technology plans to field Hunt in at least ten NASCAR K&N Pro Series East events, starting at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2013.  Other confirmed races are Richmond International Raceway, Langley Speedway, Columbus Speedway, CNB Bank Raceway Park, Dover International Speedway, Road Atlanta, Rockingham Speedway, and both events at Greenville Pickens Speedway. The team hopes to compete at more events, but will depend on further sponsorship.

For more information regarding Sam Hunt, follow @SamHunt22 on Twitter, see www.huntracing.com, or the Sam Hunt facebook fan page.

For sponsorship opportunities, email Ryan Johnston at ryan@champmm.com.

When the green flag flew the cars made their way through turns one and two with no problem. Hunt was in major tire conserve mode. Letting other cars pass, Hunt fell back to the 22nd position and was running at about 60% of maximum throttle. He was conserving as the team expected, staying off the throttle and rolling through the corners. Around lap 80, it was go time. The #22 car started pushing hard, clicking off fast laps and moving past slower cars. By lap 100, Hunt had moved from 22nd position to 12th. When the caution flew on lap 125, Hunt had made his way to 6th and was re-starting behind the #46 of teammate Brandon Gdovic. On the restart, one of the cars up front spun their tires and had trouble getting up to speed creating a log jam of cars going into turn one. Hunt was able to avoid the bumper of Gdovic, but was hit from behind and spun out. The caution flew and Hunt and several other cars that were involved rejoined the field. Hunt would be starting in 14th. On the next green flag run, taking advantage of his conserved tires, Sam was able to battle his way up to 12th. On the final green/white checkered restart, Hunt elected to take the outside line through the first corner to avoid the gaggle of cars fighting for the low grove. The #22 car was very loose on the outside line but, managed to stay pointed in the right direction and exited turn 2 in 9th. Exiting turn 4 and coming to the checkered flag Sam met up with the #18 and #11 wrecking wildly as they approached the checkered flag. Both cars stayed in the throttle, creating a cloud of smoke approaching finish line. (see video clip attached) Hunt listened to his spotter, who couldn’t see anything either, and stayed on the bottom. Driving into the smoke heading to the finish, Hunt slammed into the #11 car. Hunt’s car went spinning and slid backwards across the finish line. Sam was fortunate that he wasn’t hurt but had fought his way to a 7th place finish.

“What a agonizing race. Running slow in the beginning and conserving our tires was really hard to do. Cars kept passing and it was tempting to take off earlier. I saw those guys wrecking at the finish line and then there was just a huge cloud of white smoke that eliminated visibility. Shayne said try low, went as low as I could till I saw the inside wall out the driver’s side door. I had the whole field of cars bearing down on me, so I couldn’t use the brakes. We just kept it down and drove into the smoke. It was a hard hit but I’m ok. It’s really nice to finally have a good finish it’s just not how we drew it up!”

In qualifying, Hunt struggled with a tight condition on entry and in the middle of the corner. The qualifying lap did not reflect the speed the car was capable of , especially on the longer runs. Hunt would roll off 22nd for the America Real TV 150.

When the green flag dropped on Saturday, Hunt knew he had a good car for the race. Staying on the outside through turns one and two, Hunt picked up three spots on the first lap. By lap 20, Sam had passed six cars and was charging foward. The car was still a little tight but Hunt was making it work by running a higher line through the corners. Running lap times similar to the leaders, Hunt went to work on passing the #96 car. After completing the pass, Hunt joined a two car battle for 13th between the #1 and the #32. The two cars battling for position washed up the track in turn four, and Hunt dove underneath them both, completing the pass on the #1 but not able to clear the #32. Hunt then moved to the top line, and ran side by side for several laps until he completed the pass of the #32. On lap 60, the #1 car dived bombed the #32 entering turn three, making it three wide with Hunt in the high line just ahead of the #32. The #1 made contact with the #32 as he slid up the track sending the #32 out of control into the left rear of Hunt’s machine. Both cars looped around, with Hunt unfortunately hitting the safer barriers with the driver side door. The contact with the wall caused moderate damage to the car but, the team refused to give up. Hunt hit pit road and the team went to work, beating out fenders, taping down the hood, and making any other possible repairs. Sam rejoined the field after losing a lap, and was still running competitive laps with the damaged race car. During another long green flag run Hunt was able to pick up several positions and was in line for the lucky dog which would get his lap back from the previous pit stop. Unfortunately, Sam’s communication radio in the car failed at the moment his spotter instructed him to move into the lucky dog position. Sam was unable to hear the communication and eventually was forced by officials to pit road to correct the problem. Instead of getting his lap back and returning to the fight, Hunt found himself 3 laps down and out of contention. Sam then ran the final 20 laps as hard as he could, but could not make up ground. He ended up 19th.

“Pretty disappointed with the finish we had compared to how well the car was handling early in the race. I was proud of the team for not giving up after the contact with the #32 and getting back into a position for a good finish. When the radio failed and we had to pit under green it was basically game over. At that point we just had to ride out the remaining laps and not tear anything else up. I’m really pleased with how we took to Dover. The team did a good job with the set up and it gave me confidence to drive the car hard throughout the course, I really enjoyed this place and look forward to returning next year.”

Sam Hunt is currently in 13th place in the 2012 K&N standings with 2 races remaining. Greenville-Pickens and Rockingham

When the green flag dropped Saturday afternoon, Hunt immediately picked up two spots on the first lap and continued to move past two more over the next several laps. After falling in line in the 18th place, Hunt began to feel the car become progressively tight in the center of the corner. Halfway through the race, the tight condition was becoming progressively worse and Sam was losing positions quickly. Hunt was doing everything in his power to get the car turning in the center of the corner. He slowed his entry and rolled more of the corner but, it just wouldn’t improve the tight condition. The condition was very similar to what the team experienced earlier in the year at Iowa Speedway. Hunt managed to overtake several cars which were experieing mechanical issues and a few slower cars through the long runs and was running in 26th position. During a caution the team elected to make a huge swing at the tight condition in an attempt to free up the car in the center of the turn. The change should help the car in the center of the turn but, the risk could be corner entry becoming extremely loose. After the serious adjustments in the pit, Sam felt no difference in the corners but now had a loose car on entry. During the latter stages of the race, Hunt was fighting a loose condition entering the corners, extremely tight in the center, and loose on exit of the corners. With ten laps to go, the field restarted for what looked to be the final laps of the race. Soon after the restart, the #1 car and #39 of made contact on the long backstretch, triggering a massive 150 mph crash (Talladega like) that totaled 4 cars and damaged several others. As the crash unfolded smoke, dust, and cars filled the track as drivers attempted to make evasive maneuvers. Cars were crashing everywhere. Shayne Lockhart, Hunt’s spotter, called out, “go low” and Sam responded by dropping low and avoiding the first wave of cars. Then Sam turned back to the right to avoid a car that had hit the inside wall. At this point he was headed back up the track toward the carnage, he quickly snapped the car back to the left and did a slow spin backward stopping just short of the inside wall. Hunt had been very fortunate avoiding contact and had successfully passed four or five cars, the hard way! As Sam and the rest of the cars parked on the track during the extended red flag to remove several drivers from their cars and clean up the mess on the backstretch, his spotter informed Sam that he scored a 10 out of 10 for wreck avoidance as everyone watched the jumbo tram replay the wreck in slow motion from several angles. The race was completed with a green white checkered flag with Hunt finishing in 20th position.

“We just had a really poor handling car all day, we totally missed the set up which had everyone really frustrated. We just haven’t been able to get this car to turn since Columbus several weeks ago. We need to figure out why, or leave this car at the shop. We were fortunate not to add a wrecked car to the days results and I’m still not sure how we avoided hitting anything in that last big wreck. I guess we did have some luck today after all. A lot of cars got destroyed out there and I hope everyone is ok. They all seemed to be able to walk to the ambulance. It’s really frustrating to run like this and the whole team feels the same frustration. We’ve got to figure out at the shop what’s going on with this chassis. Something is defiantly out of balance. We go to Dover next week where we’ll use a different chassis, so we’ll have a few weeks after that to work on this one .”

The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 140 has been rescheduled for Saturday, Oct. 27 at 8 p.m.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East competitors will return to action on Saturday, September 22 for the G-Oil 100 at Hew Hampshire Motor Speedway.

HERE’S THE LINK!

http://www.nascar.com/news/120817/2012-mpd-kn-east/index.html

Early in the first practice session, Sam and the team struggled with what they thought was a tight race car.  After several short practice runs and continually working to free the car up, the team discovered the spring height in the front right was too short and was causing the car to bottom out on entry to the corner.  The effect was similar to that of a tight condition.  The team  changed to a taller spring and Sam hit the track for the second practice session and quickly realized the effect of the spring.  The changes made to free the car up made a quick impression once the spring height was resolved.  Now that Sam had the correct spring height, all the previous adjustments came into play and the car became extremely loose on the one mile oval.  For the balance of practice, the team continued to improve the handling and by the end of the second practice Sam had moved from 35^th to 28^th fastest.

In qualifying, an attempt to run a modified line on the warm up lap appeared to backfire for both Sam and his teammate , Brandon Gdovic. By backing up the corner on the warm up lap they felt it would lengthen the front straight and improve their time.  Unfortunately, the strategy didn’t produce the results they had hoped.  Although Sam picked up two and a half tenths on his  qualifying time compared to practice, it would only result in 30^th  out of the 45 entries.  Qualifying him into the 36 car field but, starting near the rear.  Brandon would qualify 29^th.

The 150 lap race started at night after the Nationwide practice sessions.   As the cars circled the track prior to the green flag the #91 car, directly in front of Sam, began overheating and spraying water on Sam’s windshield.  It blocked Hunt’s vision for the remainder of the warm up laps but, it would disappear as soon as the race started and the cars got up to speed.  Hunt quickly dispersed of the #91 and moved passed two more cars in the opening lap but trouble would return by lap three in the form of a bad vibration.  As the vibration worsened, Sam had his hands full.  The car was shooting up the track from the center of the corner and the vibration quickly became a major concern for the team. Sam radioed that the front end was bouncing violently throughout the track and the car was basically un-drivable.  The team reviewed the options and elected to ride out the problem hoping for an early caution, to determine if a shock had broken or a spring had failed.  Coming in under green would have cost Sam several laps so, the only option to salvage a decent finish was to try and ride it out.  The vibration and the car’s handling became worse and worse as the race proceeded caution free. By lap 50, Hunt was limping around still in search of a caution in 33rd place. The car’s handling continued to deteriorate  and he was already two laps down to the leader.  On lap 53 the yellow flag finally flew for a wreck on the back straight.  Hunt immediately hit pit road and the team opened the hood to examine the cars suspension.  After initially seeing no obvious problem, Sam circled the track, still under caution and returned to pit lane.  This time the crew discovered the damaged front left tire and made a quick change getting Sam back on track without losing another lap.  On lap 76 the competition caution flag flew and all the teams hit pit road.  Sam’s team worked quickly to adjust the camber in the front left to insure he could make the finish line 75 laps ahead.  The second half of the race, Sam held his position and passed several cars but he was already 2 laps down.  He gained valuable experience on the  one mile track and moved forward several spots through attrition and avoiding two multiple cars wrecks to finish 24th. Hunt continued to battle the track and his car throughout the race and salvaged a finish that kept him 13^th in points for the season with four races remaining.

Comments from Sam after the race:

“Today was just a difficult day.  Not nearly as bad as our first visit to Iowa but, none the less, a very disappointing finish.  Neither Brandon or I could find the speed we were expecting and the problem with the left front just put us in a deep hole that we couldn’t recover from.  The first 50 laps seemed like an eternity.  When  we changed the tire and got fresh rubber the car handled much better but, it was still sliding up the track.  Still couldn’t hold it down on the racing line through exit. The team worked hard though and I could tell they were as frustrated as me with our situation. The best advice I got was when Shayne finally told me “you got what you got, you’re going to have to ride it out until a caution”.  I knew then that we were in salvage mode and my job was to take care of the car, keep it off the wall, and finish the race. Not much else we could do.  We’ll diagnose this race and next week and move on to the next one at Greenville.   We also want to thank Montana Mike’s for providing food to the team this weekend, it was really good and they do a great job.  Oakley Tank Lines, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Lost Boy’s and all the people who help racing in this series possible.

During the early practice sessions speeds were average at best for the #22 team. The team struggled with the gear ratio for the small track as well as broken throttle pedal. The team worked quickly to change the rear gear before qualifying and free the car up so it would turn better. They also attempted to repair the throttle pedal to make it more responsive to Sam’s foot. By the end of practice Hunt was running around 10th fastest, and was really good on longer runs.

Qualifying didn’t go well and turned out to be a major setback for the day. Sam made his qualifying laps with but, his newly reconfigured throttle pedal was not working properly. The pedal was sticking and not allowing Sam to compress to the floor on acceleration like it should. The result was a qualifying effort of 18th. The qualifying position was not the bad news though. The bad news was that the throttle pedal was not working properly and something had to be done before the car could race in the 150 lap event. The only option the team had was to pull the #22 out of the impound area and work to correct the throttle. The penalty, Sam would now start at the rear of the field.

When the race began, Hunt immediately found himself trapped behind two slower cars. Since the track is so small and there was a small racing line, he had to try and be patient and drive around the two cars. After riding behind the #12 car for ten laps, finally Hunt stuck his fender into the 12 car, spinning him out and bringing out the first caution. As the race progressed, Hunt slowly moved forward through the field. After starting 24th, Hunt was up to 16th by halfway. On lap ninety five, the #9 car of Chase Elliot spun off turn two, collecting two more cars. Hunt dove to the inside and was knocked down into the grass by a car that was on his bumper. Hunt stayed hard on the throttle through the grass and came out of the mishap in good shape, and passed two cars. After earning the lucky dog and getting back on the lead lap, Hunt continued to charge as hard as he could for the final 50 laps. After starting 24th, Hunt came across the line in the 11th place on the lead lap.

“Today was a bit of a challenge. We had some issues during practice but, were able to pass some cars during race and salvage a respectable finish. Track position was important in the race and starting in the back definitely didn’t help us. That’s ok though, because we got some experience getting around cars. Everyone worked hard and was satisfied with the finish and I’m really happy about that.”