BNS: Penfold Motorsports Thunder Road Review

The Penfold Motorsports team made their first visit of the season to Thunder Road in Vermont for the Jiffy Lube 150 Busch North Series event. It was the 15th of 18 events this season. Bill Penfold went into the event hoping to better the teams 12th place finish at Star Speedway the week before.

"We had a good car at Star, but lost the motor there," Penfold said before the race. "We put in the one we ran with this car earlier this year and feel it will be a pretty good car."

Bill didn't get a good draw and had some problems during the first round of qualifying, but when he went back out for second round it was different. For the second week in a row, Penfold made the #0 VIP Charters/ neracing.com Chevrolet the fastest car in second round qualifying, earning the 17th starting position.

When the race started, Bill was able to pick up a few spots quickly. As the race went on, trouble hit the Yarmouth, Maine based team when contact with another car on the tight ¼ mile banked track gave 0 car a flat tire. Bill was forced to pit under green flag conditions, which is impossible to overcome at short tracks like Thunder Road. The team went several laps down and eventually finished in the same place they started, 17th.

"I was very disappointed," Bill said after the race. "We started the race with a good car, something my crew chief Bob Harrison has given me all year. But these short tracks can bite you in a hurry. We will try it again next week at Beech Ridge. I have won at that track, I hope we can have a good finish with the Busch car."