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Rookie Diary: Off-Key Music at Nashville |
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July 21. Nashville may be the home of country music in America,
but Wade Cunningham didn’t especially like the tunes they were playing
after the first half of the Pro race at the Superspeedway last
Saturday. The keys they ended up playing in then were, C, S and
D, and they sounded off-key to Wade. Those keys were Camara,
Simmons and Drake, and Jaime, Jeff and Jay finished in first, second
and third place, respectively. Wade was left with a fourth, his
first non-podium finish since his fourth place finish in the season
opener at Homestead-Miami.  Photo, Lf-Rt, Brian Stewart, Wade
There were some sweet notes for Wade after the race, though. He
increased his points lead in the Pro Series championship standings, and
he remains the only Pro driver to have finished every race lap up to
the current half-way point in the Series. But back to the race,
and a little background before we hear from Wade.
Qualification wasn’t too bad. Sam Schmidt Motorsports had again
taken the oval track’s front row as they have in every oval track race
this season – Homestead, Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Texas. For
the first time this season, though, Brian Stewart Racing nailed down
the second row. Wade was in third, right behind Jaime Camara, and
teammate Arie Luyendyk Jr. was in fourth, behind Travis Gregg. In
the final practice, after qualifying, running with full tanks and race
set-up, Wade had turned in the fastest time, with Camara second
fastest. Gregg was fifth fastest and Luyendyk Jr.
seventh.
On the start of the race Camara had gone up high in the first turn,
squeezing Gregg, and the two made contact. Wade, who had stayed
close behind Jaime went down low and avoided any involvement.
Camara had stayed flat out in the contact incident, but Gregg lifted
off, and Arie, who was right behind Gregg, had to check-up to avoid
contact.
The effect of all this was that the first part of the inside on the
starting grid – Camara, Cunningham, Herb, and Simmons, found themselves
at the front of the pack and the first part of the outside on the
starting grid were back there somewhere sorting themselves out.
Gregg found himself in fifth and Arie in sixth.
Camara had lost his teammate and Wade his. It was just the two of
them running 1-2, shades of the Indianapolis Freedom 100 race.
The Nashville concrete 1.33 mile oval track is noted for its one and a
half racing lines, making it, 1) hard on tires because of the concrete,
and 2) very hard to pass other fast cars because of less than two
racing lines. Playing it safe and/or smart Wade just stayed in
second from the start up to about lap 42 of the 77 race laps.
By this time Arie, who had a very fast car [he turned in the fastest
lap of the race], had recovered and was now running in third behind
Cunningham. Then things went off-key for Wade. Arie passed
Wade and then Jon Herb, who had been behind Arie, also passed
Wade. This is when things started to go off-key.
Wade had this to say about the race: “I had a really good
start. Everything went pretty much exactly as we planned. I
was racing pretty slow, just following Jaime. It would have been
quite easy to just move up there and run on his gearbox. I chose
to stay out of his draft, however, to conserve my tires a bit. It takes
a lot away from the car’s front if you run like that [in the
draft]. And that puts a lot of strain on your tires so they won't
be good at the end of the race. So I was choosing to run outside
the draft, so we wouldn’t have a tire problem later. You know,
just bide your time. I wasn't challenging at the start, I was
just kind of hanging back waiting for later on in the race. As
the race went on, I could tell his car was going away. So I was
trying to set up for the end of the race. My car was still good
and the balance wasn't changing, which was good.
So we just ran about 40-odd laps like that. I was real
comfortable, I knew I was quicker than him, but there was no point in
pushing him at that stage in the race. Then coming up on lap traffic, I
had to remember to be really cautious in passing.
The race kind of changed for me when Arie came up on me going into Turn
1. I didn't hear a lot from my spotter. There was an
electrical storm apparently ... and a lot of people had radio
problems... so I wasn't really expecting it [Arie’s pass on the
inside]. But there he was... I tried to get out of the way
because the last thing you want to do is have an accident, you
know. Then I got a bit of a run on him going into Turn 3, but he
changed his line then and that just killed my momentum. Because
of that, then Jon Herb got by me down inside the same way as Arie did.
That really put us on our back foot.”
Shortly after Arie and Herb passed Wade, Herb ran into the back of Arie
[on lap 50]. Herb’s front right wing sliced Arie’s left rear tire
and sent Luyendyk Jr. into the pits for a new tire. The incident
brought out the yellow, and because of that, Arie got back out on the
same lap, but further back in the field.
As for Herb, he lost his front right wing, but stayed out because his
team did not have a replacement. With Arie pitting Wade was back
in third. However, when the track went green [lap 53] Jeff
Simmons passed Wade on the restart, moving him back to fourth
again. But then wing-less Jon Herb started dropping back and Wade
easily re-passed Jon to regain third.
Wade stayed in third while Simmons went after Camara. It wasn’t
long [lap 59] before Jeff and Jaime demonstrated for the fans that open
wheel racing can be a contact sport. Only brilliant driving by both
kept them on the track after colliding with each other; and kept Wade
from inheriting the lead. That incident brought out the yellow
again. On that restart [lap 62] Wade maintained his third
position, but Travis Gregg soon spun and made contact with the inside
retaining wall on the backstretch.
When the track again went green [lap 70] Jay Drake, who had
started last and used his fast Vision Racing car to work his way
patiently through the field, had better acceleration and was able to
pass Wade and claim third place. [Jay had been the fastest in
practice, but brushed the wall later and missed qualification,
therefore having to start last.] And finally, on lap 75,
Jerry Coons Jr. did a non-contact spin off of Turn 4 and brought out
the yellow out for the final two laps of the race. Camera took
the checkered for his second victory of the season, and the fourth this
year for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Arie Luyendyk Jr. finished all 77
laps and ended up eighth.
About the finish Wade went on to say, “I was in there for a couple of
restarts. Then I saw Travis [who had worked his way back up to
fourth place] spin out on the first lap of a restart. On the last
restart [after Travis’ spin], however, I bogged down in four coming up
through the gears. That’s why Jay got me. And that’s how we went
from third to fourth. Once the engine picked up, we were fast, but I
probably wasn't as aggressive as I should have been. That was the end
of the race.” Still Wade finished the 77 laps while Travis
finished 62 laps for a tenth place finish.
Travis Gregg was second in the Series points standing going into this
race, and behind Wade by 10 points. After the race Wade had
opened up his lead over Travis to 21 points. On the other hand,
Jaime Camara who was in third going in and 46 points behind Wade ended
up now only 25 points behind. All in all the points race is the
tightest and most competitive in the history of the Pro Series.
Stay locked in for the exciting drama that is about to unfold.
This weekend the second half of the season starts, and Wade has a good
feeling about the Milwaukee Mile after having recently had a very good
testing session there.
For more about Wade visit his official web site: www.cunninghammotorsport.com
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