USAR: Mansfield: Mark McFarland race report

Battery Problems Again for McFarland
15-year-old wins, JR Motorsports driver finishes 26th

Mooresville, NC- For the second time this season a dead battery cost Mark McFarland at shot at a great finish.

The No. 32 WINFUEL Chevrolet looked like the car to beat in Saturday night's running of the Mansfield 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway, but problems with the power cell relegated the team to a 26th-place finish as 15-year-old Joey Logano became the youngest winner ever in USAR Hooters Pro Cup competition.

After starting the Northern Division race in the seventh spot, McFarland kept his car in the top-five throughout the first half of the race. The JR Motorsports crew made sure he stayed there. Of the cars that stopped for four tires and fuel, McFarland was the first off pit road.

However, having only to pass the No. 20 of Shelby Howard to be first among the cars that already pitted, the second battery began to go.

"The car was unbelievable, especially on long runs," said McFarland. "We found a dead battery right before qualifying and we don't know how it happened because the main power switch was turned off. The officials let us change it and that one died during the race."

"I'm fairly certain that cost us our first win because we were pulling away from the guys who ended up running up front."

The bright side of the situation is that this was a Northern Division race.

"Luckily this race doesn't count against our Southern Division points," sounded McFarland. "We still need to figure these battery problems out before the Championship Series races start."

-jrm-