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Chad Humston – Clear Track Ahead Yields Knoxville Win!
(Bill W) July 18, 2011 – After two weeks of being caught up in other
driver’s accidents, it was a clear track in front of Chad Humston and
the Mark Burch Motorsports #1m team on Saturday night at Knoxville
Raceway. The Giltner, Nebraska driver led start to finish to record his
first win of the year at Knoxville and the third in his career at the
famous half-mile. They’ll try to repeat again this Saturday at
Knoxville.
The team persevered in getting the #1m ready for Knoxville. The previous
week, they had been caught for the second race in a row in someone
else’s tangle, requiring a rebuild. The yellow “Bananawagon” was back,
but the qualifying effort was disappointing (11th).
“That’s a motor we haven’t run at Knoxville, and we found out it doesn’t
like it too well,” says Chad. “We don’t want to qualify eleventh; we
want to be #1. We made the decision that the motor wasn’t going to
handle it, so we decided to go with one that would get the job done.”
The change took about fifteen minutes as the team, and some others,
worked hard in the stifling heat. “It was hot,” says Chad. “We had some
stocked coolers of water and Gatorade so we made it. I’d like to thank
the other teams for helping too. Russ Hall helped us drag the motor out
of the trailer, and afterwards, Ricky Montgomery helped check the new
one.”
Starting third in the second heat race, Chad would drive to a second
place finish and a transfer into the main event. “We had time to spare
for the heat,” he says. “It didn’t go too bad. We wanted to get the win,
but we got a transfer, and that’s what you really need.”
Used to qualifying well, an invert of ten seldom sees Chad up front, but
it was a side benefit of his qualifying lap. He hit the cushion and
pulled away from the field. “We were kind of cruising around,” he says.
“The car felt really good, and the motor was strong. We didn’t have to
race anyone real hard, but the first corner is always the toughest one
when you start up front like that.”
Despite a couple of caution periods, Chad had no peer on this night and
stayed out front. “We had two or three restarts in there, and those were
going good too,” he says of the performance of the #1m. “Everything
worked out for us on Saturday. It was a great track, which was amazing
with the hot weather they had.”
There had to be some shellshock after the previous two weeks. “I was
really keeping an eye out for any cars out ahead of us,” says Chad.
“We’ve had enough of that stuff for sure.”
The team hopes to repeat their performance Saturday at Knoxville
Raceway. “I’m really fortunate to be a part of this team,” says Chad.
“Mark, Marvin, and everyone is so great to work with. We have some great
partners too. We’ll try to do it again this weekend.”
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