Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown

Pre-Race Prep

Richmond Intl Raceway

Practice

David Polenz and the Moon Racing crew rolled into Richmond
International Raceway last Thursday morning for the Denny Hamlin Short Track
Showdown.  It was a beautiful morning at
the raceway and a great start for David in the Redline Power Rush machine.  Practice began under the baking sun in the
afternoon, and after some small adjustments from the Moon Racing crew to free
the car up, David knew he had a fast racecar.
In first practice they put the #38 car top 20 out of 43 cars with old
used tires.  The team and David kept
working on the Circle K, On the Run car, making it faster throughout the
practices.  It was time for round 2, and
to strap on a new set of tires.
Immediately David took the #38 car to the top of the charts, he was the
fastest driver in Richmond for near half of the 2nd round.  As Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and some of the
larger NASCAR teams started to do there second and third mock qualifying runs
on new tires, David fell a couple of spots but remained inside the top 15 for
the entirety of the practice with only one run on new tires.

Ready For Qualifying

Qualifying

David was confident in his race car, but wasn’t sure how
qualifying would work out.  Qualifying
began and David put up his fastest speed of the day at near a 23.15 second
lap.  It was good enough for 23rd
quickest to put him solidly in the show, and was only .008 off the top ten.

The Showdown!!

David started the Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown from the
inside 12th row, starting behind last years Nationwide Series Champion Ricky
Stenhouse Jr.  On the start David battled
3 wide behind Stenhouse, losing two spots on the outside row.  David then laid the bumper to Stenhouse, and
took him and one other car three wide down the front stretch.  David was back to 23rd quickly, and started
working towards the next two positions.
He was much faster then 21st and 22nd, and took them both into turn 3,
once again three wide on the inside, rubbing door to door.  He then took one more car on the inside, and
David was quickly up to 20th, but had fell ten car lengths behind Sprint Cup
Champion Matt Kenseth.  That was no
problem for David and the Sheehy Auto Stores sponsored 38, as he caught Kenseth
and 7 other  cars in front of him in just
a couple of laps.  David and Kenseth
battled aggressively until the caution came out on lap 19, while running side
by side.  On the restart David was on the
outside.  They took the green  and immediately went three wide into turn
1.  David made a crossover to the middle
of two cars to make up lost ground to the inside line, but at the same instance
Tony Stewart spun out in the center of turn 2 and stopped in the middle
lane.  That left David nowhere to go, as
he tried to move up and pushed a car high, he got hit from behind, locked up
all 4 wheels, and sent head on into Stewarts left rear tire, destroying the
front body work and radiator. The wreck took Davids
probable top ten night to a 31st place finish and out of the race.  The team and David were very proud of how
they performed before the wreck and deserve to be.  David was also the only Late Model driver on
Speed Channel for the event catching parts of the highlight reels with Stewart
and Kenseth.  He also got his first
interview with MRN Radio which was broadcasting the race nationally. Only
discouraged with the result, Davids excited to return to his 33 machine in the
upcoming races.  Look for more updates on
our website, www.DavidPolenzRacing.com, and David’s profiles at
www.Facebook.com/davidpolenz33,www.twitter.com/davidpolenz33,
andwww.instagram.com/davidpolenz33.  See
you at the track!

David Checking Out The Damage