MONTREAL, QUEBEC - A faulty lockup ratchet in the rear end of Morgan Shepherd's #89 Chevrolet caused major problems for the team during Saturday night's qualifying in the rain for the NAPA 200 road course event at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
With only three laps on the track in the only rain-soaked practice session of the day, Shepherd said he knew something was wrong with the car, but couldn't pinpoint what without some more time on the track to diagnose the problem.
"We could just never get on the track. Every time I would be set to go out there would be a caution," he said. "Then the second practice got cancelled so we never had a chance to find out what the problem was. It was all over the track on the straightaways."
When the announcement was made that the teams would qualify in the rain on Saturday night, Shepherd knew his team was in trouble.
"Had the pavement been dry we would have probably been fast enough, but with it being wet the rear end was breaking loose all the way down the straights," he said.
The result was the team's third straight failure to make the race. After tearing the car down upon returning to the shop on Monday the problem surfaced.
"The ratchet which allows the rear wheels to pull together was not engaging which would allow us to pull with both wheels sometimes and only one wheel sometimes," Shepherd said.
But Saturday's failure to make the field did more damage as a result of the financial toll that missing the field brings.
"I had to let just about everybody go on Monday when we got back," Shepherd said. "We will go to Atlanta and I will just have to do it pretty much by myself. We just can't pay people when we don't have anything coming in."
Monday's layoffs included many shop and track crew personnel, including crew chief Morris Van Vleet. The cutbacks leave the team with just one shop mechanic and one track crew member.
Shepherd said if the team doesn't get some sponsorship soon or if it fails to make the starting field at Atlanta that he will have to make some tough decisions.
"There is no quit in us, but we can only go so far without money. We'll see after Atlanta what we are able to do."
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