Catchfence

Well ladies and gentlemen, now that qualifying is over I can breathe a little easier.  I knew the No. 38 Mahindra Tractors Ford Fusion would not be as good as we expected, but I think everyone was behind the 8 ball from the start.  Most cars in practice on Friday only received two laps of practice and had to make adjustments from there.  Our team was no different.

When our opportunity came around for practice, we made a mock-up qualifying run getting our two laps of practice in before the rain came.  From there, the Mahindra Tractors team made adjustments for qualifying on Saturday.

So, needless to say, I didn’t get a bit of sleep Friday night wondering what the car would do for qualifying.

On Saturday morning, I had an opportunity to visit with the crew chief and discuss the changes they had made. He assured me the changes would be a night and day difference from the day before.

When qualifying came about, the anticipation of running my two laps was killing me! I was eager to feel the changes we made and see what kind of lap we would put up.  Then it was my turn to qualify.

I pulled the No. 38 Mahindra Tractors Ford Fusion off of pit road and right up to the outside wall to start building up the momentum for my qualifying laps.  Once around, twice around, and then I crossed the finish line on my final lap – I made the Daytona 500.  It’s a feeling that is hard to describe.

Since my career began in 2002, racing legends cars at Lil’ TMS  - the 1/5 mile track at Texas Motor Speedway – I’ve dreamed of one day being able to run the Daytona 500.  My day has come.

Thanks to my family, friends, sponsors, fans and crew members over the years; all of our hard work has paid off. I can’t thank everyone enough who has been there and witnessed the blood sweat and tears that has gone into this effort to get me this opportunity.

I won’t let you down.

To all of my fans out there, it is you guys that keep my wheels turning.  Stay tuned for more updates further into the week with the Nationwide Series efforts and Sprint Cup updates.

- Robert Richardson, Jr.
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