Hansen Motorsports traveled to the Michigan International Speedway for a June 13 race - and as has been the 'theme' this spring, it RAINED.  We're beginning to think that if you have drought, schedule an ARCA race! 
(Apologies to our friends at ARCA Racing!)

The team arrived on June 11th and spent the day getting the new car through technical inspection.  (If you recall our previous news update, the team purchased a Sprint Cup car the previous week and diligently worked to prepare for Michigan.)  Whenever a new car is entered in a race, technical inspection is more detailed - with inspectors reviewing more than the 'usual items'.  Thursday the 12th was a busy day -- with a 2  hour practice session followed by qualifying.  The day finished with cars impounded ... meaning teams have no access to them ... until Friday's race.
 
Friday's scheduled 5PM race was ultimately postponed due to... RAIN.  We were fortunate to get rescheduled ... to 8:30AM Saturday the 14th because this was a full NASCAR weekend.  Squeezing an extra event in is never an easy task and ARCA officials deserve credit for preventing teams from having to pack up and head for home. 
 
Todd qualified 28th -- not the starting position he or the team wanted.  Yet, when the green flag dropped Todd diligently took on the task of passing cars and getting in position to compete for a win, a top 5 or top 10.  However, he suddenly started falling behind.  The motor sounded "off key".  A trip to pit road revealed a spark plug wire rubbed against a header and burned through.  With quick thinking in the pit, the team got a new plug wire in place -- and Todd finished the race 'running'.  Though he finished several laps back, his lap times toward the end of the race were clocked as some of the best by any car on the track.  A silver lining to what appeared to most as a gray cloud.  Considering all of the work that had been done on the new car it was remarkable that this was the only problem.  The entire team, working on the car night and day for the week leading up to the race was, in the end, very pleased with the new car.  Crew Chief Tony Mitchell, Car Chief Daniel Peterson, Shop Manager Skip Pollack and the rest of the team, Rob Grave, Scott Brandt and Scott Hansen are busy preparing the car for the next race. 

Driver and team talent aside, all race teams look for a little luck, which has eluded us a bit.  One would have hoped a 2 hour practice session and qualifying period would have allowed the plug wire problem to manifest itself.  Such was not the case this year at the Michigan International Speedway!