After a momentum-building performance at the series’ first road course event in June that regrettably ended with a wrecked race car, Eric McClure headed to “The Glen” hoping to exhibit the same performance with better results. Unfortunately, a multitude of issues, including a heavily damaged race car, relegated the team to a 35th-place finish.
“Today was probably one of the worst days of my career. We had a decent car and I was getting more comfortable until we ran out of gas on lap 24. Then we had some gear issues and went behind the wall. When we came back out to try and gain a spot or two it regrettably put us in the way of a couple of guys who caught us at the worst parts of the track to get out of the way, and then we wrecked our race car when we got in some fluid from another car. It was just a bad day. I hate it for our guys, but I can’t wait to put it all behind us and hopefully have some better luck next weekend at Montreal.”
At the drop of the green flag, McClure, who has limited experience on road courses, steadily began advancing through the field and by lap 18 was running in the 30th position. As the leaders began making their green flag pit stops between laps 20 and 23, the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet advanced as high as the 23rd position. One lap later, unfortunately, McClure informed his crew he was out of fuel and stalled on the race track. NASCAR officials finally displayed the caution flag on lap 25 so McClure could receive a push to pit road where the crew serviced the car with four tires and fuel. Once the engine of the No. 14 fired, McClure returned to the track in the 34th position, two laps down to the race leader.
As the race progressed, McClure held the position through the halfway marker of the race until being forced to pit road on lap 43 for four tires, fuel, and, most importantly, to clean the front grille and remove all tape as the water and oil temperatures exceeded 260 degrees. Once the service was complete, McClure returned to the track in the 35th position.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the Hefty Racing® team’s problems as just one lap later, McClure informed the team of a possible engine or transmission failure as there was a prominent vibration in the car. Rather than bringing the car to pit road, the call was made to take the car to the garage area where the team could more effectively diagnose the problem. Once the engine was ruled out as the cause of the vibration, the team quickly switched gears and began focusing on the transmission. Once it was determined that the transmission was in fact the culprit but hadn’t completely failed, crew chief Gary Cogswell sent McClure back on track in the 37th position, with 17 laps remaining, in hopes of gaining a few valuable positions.
In the closing laps, McClure not only completely lost second and third gears, which made it difficult to make the left and right-handed turns at top speed, he also slid into the No. 39 car after getting in the car’s fluid. As a result, the No. 14 Chevrolet suffered damage to the left side of the car and was unable to finish the event. In the end, the TriStar Motorsports team was credited with a 35th-place finish.
TriStar Motorsports PR
- Talladega Superspeedway Weekend Schedule - April 14, 2024
- Odd Tony Stewart Talladega Post Race Q&A - May 7, 2012
- Team Chevy Post Talladega Race Rundown - May 7, 2012