LOUDON, NH - Failing to make the starting field for the second week in a row has Morgan Shepherd and his Faith Motorsports crew praying that Daytona may provide the spark the team needs to get back on the track.
After failing to qualify for Saturday's race at New Hampshire, Shepherd said he couldn't explain why so many cars could not hold up the times they ran in practice, resulting in four teams to miss the starting field.
"The car was great during first practice. We went out in the second practice to scuff our qualifying tires and only got two laps on them before the rains came," Shepherd said. "We really needed about five laps on the tires before they would grip."
Shepherd said the team tried to compensate with air pressure but his qualifying laps were tremendously loose.
"The tires just would not grip," he said. "I couldn't even begin to run the kind of lap we were capable of running."
Shepherd said he fully expected to make the New Hampshire starting lineup after finding suspension problems on the car after last week's failed attempt at Milwaukee.
"The A arm was sliding back and forth almost a half inch so once we got here and tore the car down it was obvious what happened last week," he said. "When we would go into the corners the A arm would slide back when I would brake and would through the toe out."
Shepherd said after having all week to go over the car with a fine-toothed comb, he was sure this weekend would be the turnaround he needed.
"We only have two options now. Quit or keep going. Since quit isn't an option I guess we will see what we can do next week at Daytona to get back on track."
The team's superspeedway car has qualified well in both previous superspeedway attempts this year.
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