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Wednesday, August 8
Busy day at IRP
By Dennis Setzer
Special to ESPN.com
| |  | | | Setzer |
Racing at the Indianapolis Raceway Park last Friday took me back to the years I spent racing across the eastern parts of North Carolina and Virginia. Back in the days when I purely raced for fun and not to make a living, the days where I would be at Caraway Speedway on Friday night and South Boston on Saturday.
Back when I started my career I would race as many nights a week as I could. We would load up the car on a Thursday night after work and drive to a track that would have weekly Friday night shows. We would race, clean up the car and drive all night until we arrived somewhere that we could race on Saturday. This was life in the summer time, work all week so we could afford to go to the racetrack on the weekends.
Racing back in those days was tough because you would unload your equipment, try and get a few laps of practice before qualifying, run the heat races and if the night went well race in the feature. I look back at the schedule now and think on any given weekend we could run two qualifying races, two heat races and two features on any given weekend, and that was simply the minimum.
Heading to IRP in the Craftsman Truck Series really did remind me of those early days. IRP is one of two races on the schedule where we head in early in the morning, practice, qualify and race all in the same day. When you make it to this level of racing however, there is no tomorrow, no track up the road to head to and win the next night after finishing last the night before. When it comes to a one-day show in a NASCAR race you'll either have it or you won't.
When the Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team unloaded it honestly was one of those situations where we did not have the setup it would take to win. Once we took to the track the truck was tight in the center and loose off. We tried several different combinations of shocks and springs, but nothing was bringing the truck around. The difficult option was whether to spend time on the qualifying setup or move on and try and find something that would be comfortable for the race.
We could only produce a 20th place starting position in qualifying, which we were very disappointed with. When you race at a place the size of IRP your already almost half a lap down when you start that far back in the field. Once the green flag drops you have to get up on the wheel and go. We had the opportunity to make some adjustments to the truck before the race, which we did, but were unsure of what to expect once the green flag dropped.
The truck came around good at the start of the race, it was still uncomfortable to drive the first 50 laps, but as the sun set behind the grandstands it started to tighten off the corners, allowing me to get deeper into the throttle. We moved up into the top-10 and ended up staying there for the remainder of the evening. The guys in the pits were quick with their stops, gaining us eight positions through the night.
I was able to move the No. 46 Acxiom/Computer Associates Chevrolet through the field and gain an eighth-place finish. I thought about packing the truck up and heading down the road to Anderson, another short track in the area, but then realized that I was thinking back to the days back when.
It's tough when you come to a track for a one-day event -- it's hard to get the truck dialed in perfect if it's not close when you unload. When we head to Nashville this Friday we will have had two days to acclimate ourselves with the place by the time the race starts. That allows us to work hard on the race day setup as well as something for qualifying.
IRP took me back to those days early on in my career, I remember the one-day events like it was yesterday and remember picking up the pieces one night and heading to victory lane the next. The Morgan/Dollar Motorsports team picked up the pieces and gained our fifth top-10 finish in six races at IRP. The team has really come together as of late and has proven that we are one of the teams to look for in the series.
Those days way back when are only memories now, some of the best in my life. I have had a great deal of success with those one-day races, I have amassed wins and championships. But life in the Craftsman Truck Series allows me to make a living and have fun racing at the same time. I miss those one-day events and am actually am looking forward to the next one.
Dennis Setzer, driver of the No. 46 Acxiom/Computer Associates Chevrolet for Morgan/Dollar Motorsports in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, will provide a diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2001 season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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