It was a good day for Core Motorsports and Clint Mears as the team
entered it’s inaugural race together at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday
night.
Clint Mears qualified 17th with a time of 19.018. After the green flag dropped, Mears moved through traffic up
two places in fewer than twenty laps. On lap fifty-three, the Core Motorsports
team cut the right front tire coming out of turn four, putting the car into
the wall. The team worked quickly
in the pits and had Mears back out on lap fifty-seven, but then returning on
lap fifty-eight.
There was quite a bit of damage to the right front section of the car,
but the team got him back on the track on lap ninety-nine. He
completed three more laps and then back to the pits.
The damage was too extensive and team owner, Steve Lucore made the
decision to save the car and not put the driver and other drivers in any
danger. “Clint had said that
the car was running great, he could take it anywhere on the track, high and
low” stated Lucore, “then we cut a tire coming out of turn four, we think
we picked up something on the track and it started going down, once we hit the
wall, the engine moved forward and the radiator fan was damaged and we
didn’t want to overheat the motor, but we’ll be back.”
Core Motorsports completed fifty-eight laps during the Home Depot 250.
The race will be broadcast on Speedvision on July 15th at 8:00pm
(ETD). The team is scheduled to race at Irwindale Speedway in the Winston West
Series on November 11th.