Nowlin heads to Nicholls State
March 12, 2013
Juvenile Justice: Fixing a broken system
March 12, 2013
Viva Las Vegas!
Another new track for me and another new set of circumstances thanks to Mother Nature culminated into what turned out to be an exciting weekend and a great race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. My American Custom Yachts team members and I stayed out West and traveled to Las Vegas the day after our race in Phoenix. My week included two autograph signings at different hotels on the famed Fremont Street, as well as doing some gambling and seeing the Cirque du Soleil show, O, at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. It was a very fun week and the race events hadn’t even started yet!
Friday’s track schedule was to include two practice sessions with a total of three hours and forty minutes of track time. I was really looking forward to having that much time on the racetrack as I had never raced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before; however, Mother Nature had other plans. I awoke to a cold and rainy day that pestered Las Vegas Motor Speedway all day. The excitement and anticipation that I had going into our practice day was replaced with uncertainty, which is not a good feeling for any racecar driver. The jet dryers took to the track as soon as the rain stopped falling thus starting the track drying process. The track had finally finished drying by the evening and we got on track under a slow paced condition for only three laps behind the pace car before rain started falling again. This ended our practice day.
Saturday was raceday, and when we arrived at the track, it was still wet from the previous night. Our schedule for the day was changed to allow only 45 minutes of practice in the morning. I was able to get on track for approximately 15 laps allowing very limited time to learn the track and dial in our car.
I started the race in 14th due to weather and starting based on last year’s owner points. I fell back to 16th in the first few laps as I was still learning the racetrack, but once I had a few laps around the track, I was able to really get up to speed and was able to hold my own. As the race went on, I came in for several adjustments to address my car handling conditions. These changes allowed me to finish 24th and keep my #44 American Custom Yachts Toyota Camry out of any major wrecks. We will be taking this car to California in two weeks with a notebook full of information that we can utilize at that track. Next week, I will be racing at the high speed, high banked, half mile oval, Bristol Motor Speedway!
