Santerre Gives Lance Team Fifth Top-10

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. - Sometimes, all it takes is a little guts and a lot of determination.

Driver Andy Santerre and the No. 25 Team Rensi Motorsports Lance Snacks Chevrolet team displayed both of those characteristics Saturday at South Boston Speedway. Santerre came from the middle of the pack in the final 95 laps and outraced Jay Fogleman to the flag on the final lap to record the team's fifth top-10 finish of the season in the NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division Textilease/Medique 300.

Santerre raced Fogleman to the checkered flag and beat him in a photo finish to finish 10th, the team's first top-10 run since Santerre came home sixth at New Hampshire on May 12.

"That last lap was pretty exciting," said Santerre, who has finished 15th, 6th and 10th in his three scheduled starts this season. "They (the team) got on the radio and told me who I had to beat to get into the top-10, and I just let it all hang out. That's just about the hardest I've driven in my life.

"It was a good day for the Lance Snacks Chevy and we really needed a good run like this. Unfortunately we got mixed up in a little incident and might have finished in the top-five if we hadn't, but the guys worked really hard and put a good race car underneath me, and we came here and did what we had to do. We came out of this in one piece and with a good finish, so we're pretty happy about that."

Santerre started the 300-lap event from the 18th position after a qualifying run of 91.720 mph. At the start of the race, Santerre got hung up on the top groove of the racetrack and was pushed all the way back to the 30th position by lap 25.

Santerre stayed patient, however, and slowly made his way back through the field. He cracked the top-20 by lap 68, all the while avoiding the ever-growing attrition accumulating on the track. By lap 98, Santerre was back to 16th. A four-tire and fuel pit stop on lap 116 pushed him back to 22nd position, but once again he would make his way back toward the front and into the top-15 less than 60 laps later.

Santerre was running 14th on lap 202 when Chad Chaffin spun out in turn 3. With nowhere else to go, Santerre also spun out, but didn't hit anything. The spin resulted in Santerre going a lap down to the race leaders, but it allowed him to come into the pits for four tires and fuel along with a slight chassis adjustment.

"That incident was unfortunate, but then we were able to miss a bunch more throughout the whole race," Santerre said. "When the 77 (Chaffin) spun, there was nowhere for me to go. We were in trouble then, but we came in and made some changes on the car and got tires and got better.

"I tried to get our lap back a couple of times, but the 10 car (Jeff Green) was just too much for us. He had an awesome car. If we had been able to get our lap back, there's no telling where we could have ended up, maybe a top-five."

The Lance Snacks Chevy proved to be one of the faster cars on the racetrack thereafter. Unfortunately, so was Green's Chevrolet, the car Santerre had to pass to get his lap back. Santerre couldn't run Green down during the final 90 laps, but was able to pick off a few cars in the process. He made up a total of eight spots in the final 75 laps. Green earned his second victory of the season and maintained his position on top of the Busch Series driver point standings.

The Lance Snacks team picked up two spots in the Busch Series owner point standings and is now 13th heading into next Saturday's Myrtle Beach 250 at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Speedway.

Santerre will be behind the wheel of the Lance Snacks Chevy for six of the next seven races. Kenny Wallace returns to the seat of the car on July 29 for the CarQuest Auto Parts 250 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill.