Hooker Brothers Racing - post race update for the 6th night of racing on February 13th at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida.
NEW SMYRNA, FL - The crew arrived at the track and scaled the car to check the wedge that was found to be too high so some was taken out and a small adjustment was made to the pan-hard bar to loosen up the car in preparation of the second last race of the week.
With a 100 lap race on the schedule for the modified's, a 50 lap feature for the ASA Crate division, and with the Hooker Brothers racing in the last feature of the night, the Hooker crew covered the car and found places to read and relax as they waited. The #31 of fellow Canadian Shawn McWhirter raced from the back of the field to a 10th place finish in the ASA 50 lapper as the crew uncovered the car and lined up 5th out of 13 cars for their 25 lap feature.
The #38 Smith & Wilson Chevy started 5th inside the #92 and Kirk raced hard at the green to ensure that he was ahead going into turn one maintaining his position. The #141 took the lead followed by the #08, #63, #4b and then the #38. The entire field was racing single file as they hit the 5 lap mark until the #51 got on the inside of the #38 taking the position and putting Kirk back to 6th on the 7th lap.
The #26 tried to follow the #51 however; Kirk was able to hold off the challenge and pull away by a car length down the straight-aways. At the half way mark, the top five cars pulled away from the #38 JBM Leasing Chevy who was leading the second pack with cars nose to tail behind him.
The gap with the leaders narrowed as the caution came out for the #9z who spun on his own coming out of turn 2. The crew reminded Kirk that the #26 liked to jump the restarts and that he should do what he could to prevent her from getting the edge coming out of turn four.
Kirk did a great job and would have to do it twice in a row as a car spinning in turn three brought the caution back out. Keeping the #26 behind him was Kirks biggest challenge as they got the 10 to go signal as the #141, #63, #08 and #4b pulled ahead of him in a tight race for the win. The #63 was winning the battle at the front as he passed the #141 for the lead with 5 laps remaining. With just two laps to go, Kirk was able to pull away from the #26 and was racing hard with the crew encouraging him to keep digging as he was closing in on the leaders.
As the leaders came off of turn two for the final lap, the #63 got turned causing a chain reaction of spinning and hard brakes to avoid contact. Kirk went for a hole low on the track just as the #4b did the same and the two got together, tearing off the right front fender of the #38. The checkered flag was in the air and the cars involved were quickly trying to get straightened out and race for the finish line as the caution flag was still not being waved at the starters stand.
The #141 made its way through and took the checkered as did the #08 followed by the #26 who got past Kirk in the smoke and gaggle of cars. Kirk was still pointed in the right direction and grabbed a gear to head for the finish line before any other car could get past him.
The #38 took the checkered for a 4th place finish and although happy with the position were disappointed as they had a great opportunity to steel the win if the #4b did not occupy the only lane to get by on the low side or if they had gone high as a clear lane opened up quickly after the leaders got together and came down the track.
A crew member of the #63 decided to add some excitement for the large crowd in the grandstands by fighting on the front stretch with crew members from another team and it wasn't long before others got involved as tempers flared bringing track staff to quickly defuse the situation. Kirk returned to the pits where the crew went to work replacing the fender and it wasn't long before the car was ready for the last night of racing the next day.
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