Burt Myers of Walnut Cove will start at the head of the pack for the biggest race of the year at Bowman Gray Stadium – but he was a few minutes away from missing his opportunity.
Qualifying for the season-opening Hayes Jewelers 200 began on Friday with an extended period of practice and qualifying for the Brad’s Golf Cars Modified Series. After a full day of practice for all divisions, the Modifieds have a window of time from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM in which they must qualify.
The competitors can choose any time in that window to make a qualifying attempt, but the cutoff is at 7:00. If a car isn’t on the track at 7:00, they miss their chance to qualify on Friday. Although competitors have the option to qualify on Saturday, the top 10 positions are locked in based on Friday’s session. In short: if you don’t qualify on Friday, you’ll be starting 11th at best.
Yet drivers don’t want to qualify too early in their window. “The longer you wait, the cooler the track gets – so the faster it will be,” said Burt Myers. And waiting is exactly what the Modifieds did. With the clock ticking, no competitor had taken a qualifying attempt until there were less than 20 minutes left.
“This was the weirdest I’ve ever seen qualifying over here,” said Myers about the waiting game. “We were sitting here and there was 18 minutes to go – 18 cars here and nobody had gone. I just knew it was going to be a scramble.”
Rather than take his chances and wait some more, Myers just pulled the trigger. “I said that there was going to be a lot of guys that don’t get to qualify tonight. I usually try to wait as long as I can, but me and Jason decided we’d just go together and go now.”
Myers was the fifth car to pull out on the track. He ran a time of 13.124, far ahead of the four qualifiers before him. Tim Brown of Tobaccoville, however, timed it perfectly – driving off the scales at the ideal time of exactly 7:00. The #83 came close but couldn’t beat Myers, qualifying second with a time of 13.168.
Only nine competitors made a qualifying attempt on Friday night, while nine competitors missed the cutoff. They will have the option of qualifying on Saturday, but the top nine starting positions are locked in based on Friday’s results.
Myers will start on the pole with Brown starting beside him. Brandon Ward of Winston-Salem starts in third, and Bobby Measmer of Concord starts fourth.
Derek Stoltz of Walkertown was the fastest qualifier for the Texas Steak & Tap House Sportsman Series with a time of 14.653.
Gates open at 6:00 for practice, the second round of qualifying begins at 7:10, and the first race begins at 8:00 PM on Saturday night, April 21. Ticket prices, directions, and more information can be found online at www.bowmangrayracing.com or by calling (336) 723-1819.
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