Lance Team Brings Home 23rd from Nazareth

NAZARETH, Pa. - Considering the circumstances, driver Andy Santerre and the Team Rensi Motorsports Lance Snacks Chevrolet team were more than a little bit fortunate Sunday at Nazareth Speedway.

Santerre brought the No. 25 Lance Chevrolet home in 23rd place in the EconoLodge 200 at the unique one-mile, paved oval. The situation certainly could have been much worse.

Santerre's car had handling problems the entire weekend, forcing him to start from near the back of the field. He was able to avoid most of the carnage and attrition throughout the 200-lap event, and finished the race with a major vibration that developed in the final few laps.

"I guess we'll have to take that," Santerre said. "We knew going into today that we just didn't have the best race car. This is a rough race here at Nazareth, and if you can just finish this thing you're usually doing pretty well.

"We started in the rear and avoided all the wrecks. I don't know how sometimes, but we did. We got through the whole race. Overall the guys did a great job, they never gave up on the car or me. Sometimes you just have those weeks where you're not the best and you just have to deal with it."

Crew chief Greg Ely echoed Santerre's sentiments.

"We didn't bring our best car here, we knew that going in," Ely said. "We kinda sacrificed for next week (at Pike's Peak). But we thought the car would be a little better than it was. We really struggled in qualifying and it go us in a hole that we just never got out of. The guys have been doing a great job and they've been getting progressively better every week. We'll go get 'em at Pike's Peak.

Santerre qualified 36th out of 47 cars and was forced to take a provisional, putting him in the 36th starting position. The first 34 cars qualified on time and 10 provisionals were awarded, including three Busch North Series provisionals since it was a combination event between the two series.

Santerre started 35th and made up four spots in the first 22 laps, but then fell back to 36th by lap 29. He lost a lap to leader Jeff Green on lap 48, and stayed steady until breaking into the top-30 on lap 82. He made it to as high as 19th place before pitting for four tires and fuel on lap 104.

Patiently wading his way through several wrecks, Santerre broke into the top-20 again on lap 167, and on lap 172 under a caution, the team decided to pit for two fresh right side tires. Santerre once again made up two positions, but slipped back to 21st on lap 178. On lap 190, his car developed a vibration, and Santerre nursed it the rest of the way to ensure finishing the race. He lost two more spots and wound up 23rd.

"We should have finished better, but we didn't know what was going on with that vibration, whether it was a tire going down or a loose wheel or what," Santerre said. "We didn't want to take any chances at the end and not finish and lose a couple of more positions. I just slowed down and let a couple of guys go by."

Rookie Ron Hornaday earned his first Busch Series victory, followed by Elton Sawyer, Jason Keller, Jeff Green and Kyle Petty.

The No. 25 Lance Snacks Chevrolet team will head to Pike's Peak International Raceway this weekend, where Santerre is the defending champion.

Kenny Wallace will return behind the wheel of the Lance Chevy on July 29 at Gateway International Raceway. Santerre will be a guest on the Busch Series teleconference Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.