Catchfence

New Bremen, NY (August 2, 2009): Jonathan Smith was well on his way to a career-best finish Saturday night in the NASCAR Camping World Series East until a late-race spin relegated the driver to the middle of the field. The driver of the No. 16 Fadden Racing Chevrolet was able to recoup a 12th place finish in the Edge Hotel 150 at Adirondack International Speedway, but it certainly was not indicative of his performance that evening.

“We’re disappointed,” said Smith after the race. “We had a good car all day. When I looped it coming off of four the car wasn’t the same after that. It got tight. When you get so far back with only 20 or 30 laps to go there’s not much you can do to get by those guys.”

Smith was a solid top-five car in the two practice sessions leading up to qualifying and the entire team was confident for a starting position in the first three rows. When Smith brought the No. 16 Chevrolet around turn four during his time trial, he got loose. The correction he needed to do to keep his momentum cost him valuable time.

“I got loose coming off of four and right across the finish line it messed me up because I had to get out of the gas,” explained Smith. “We qualified 13th and its tough at this track to be so far back. You have to pass on the inside and everyone blocks the inside.”

But Smith did an excellent job of passing in the 150-lap feature event.

By lap 30, Smith started his progression towards the front and moved into 11th by lap 36. He got involved in a battle with Jesus Hernandez by lap 40 for position and used lapped traffic to his advantage to take away the 10th spot. He was running seventh when the race hit the halfway mark.

The action got dicey and Smith dropped back to 10th. He quickly regained some ground and moved back up to eighth before a lap 125 spin sent him to the tail of the lead lap cars.

“I just got out of the groove and once you get into the marbles you just don’t have any grip,” said Smith. “We had a much better car than that. We had a top-five or top-three car so this is really disappointing for us.”

Fadden Racing heads to Lime Rock Park in two weeks for the next stop on the NASCAR Camping World Series East schedule. Currently, Smith is 11th in the championship point standings with three races remaining.

For more information on Fadden Racing or driver Jonathan Smith, visit www.faddenracing.net.

- Fadden Racing Press Release