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Last update: Thursday, November 05, 2009
Brandon McReynolds Toughs It Out to Grab Pole at Concord
Race Rained Out and Will Be Made Up November 14th
MOORESVILLE, NC
(November 4, 2009) – As recently as this past Friday, Brandon McReynolds wasn’t sure if
he would even be able to race in Saturday night’s next-to-last event on the
UARA-Stars Late Model Stock Car Series schedule, despite coming into the race
third in the point standings.
The weekend prior,
McReynolds had surgery on a hernia that had been bothering him for several
months. The 18-year-old was hoping to put it off until after the season,
but when things got worse, he had to go under the knife just a week before the
final two events of the season.
But McReynolds is a
racer, and with an outside shot at the UARA championship, nothing was going to
keep him out of the car. So the team packed up the #28 Airplus Insoles /
Team McReynolds Dodge and headed to Concord Speedway in Concord, NC on Saturday
morning, not sure what might happen.
What happened was
McReynolds showed everybody his true grit, picking up his second UARA-Stars
pole of the season despite racing in immense pain. Unfortunately, Mother
Nature showed her hand before the race was able to run both Saturday night and
then again on Sunday afternoon, forcing the event to be rescheduled for
November 14th. The race will now serve as the season-finale
for the UARA-Stars Series.
“I think it shows the
strength of our team,” said McReynolds of his pole-winning run. “This
weekend, I was not feeling well at all, but we still went out there and put up
strong numbers in both practice sessions (7th and 2nd
quick on the practice charts) and then laid down the quickest time in
qualifying. That just goes to show that nothing can keep our team down
when we are on it.
“It’s just too bad that
the race had to get rained out and we’ll have to come back here in a couple of
weeks and do it all over again. But I’m pretty confident that when we
come back, we can put the car on the pole again. We learned some things this
weekend and we can apply them when we come back. And I’ll be two more
weeks recovered from surgery, so I’ll just be that much better behind the
wheel.”
UARA-Stars officials
announced following the postponement that the teams would have to requalify
when they return to the track for the makeup event on November 14th.
"I am deeply
disappointed with the decision of the UARA Series to completely scratch the
qualifying session that was held prior to the rain moving in on Saturday
afternoon,” said team owner and Brandon’s father Larry McReynolds of the
decision to requalify. “This was a complete and official qualifying
session and the field was set with Brandon on the pole, regardless of when the
race could be run. I have been racing for over 30 years in about every
series imaginable, including the top NASCAR series, and I have never
seen this done before. We obviously have to live with this decision
of UARA, as do all the other competitors, and as I have told Brandon, Nick
(Hutchins, the team’s crew chief) and the team that it just gives us more
incentive to go back and run even faster than this past Saturday's qualifying
to confirm just how fast we are."
With McReynolds not sure
of how the weekend would play out in his condition, he had a friend standing by
to hop in the #28 Airplus Insoles / Team McReynolds Dodge should he need to get
out of the car during the race.
“I need to thank Matt
DiBenedetto for coming out and standing by for me,” added McReynolds.
“Matt is a great racer and I’ve had a lot of fun racing with him the last
couple of years. So to have someone like that there standing by in case
we needed him was awesome. He was able to get in the car in practice and
put down some good laps and get a feel for things. So it was great to have
him there working with us.
“But after getting the
pole and knowing I was going to start up front, it would have taken a lot for
me to get out of that car during the race. I would have to be feeling
pretty bad.”
Now, the series will
head to Kingsport Speedway in Kingsport, TN this weekend, then turn around and
come back to Concord for the season finale. With just two races left,
Brandon is 137 points out of second-place in the point standings and just 190
points behind first.
With only two more races
in 2009, Team McReynolds continues to work hard to finish the season
with a lot of momentum to carry into 2010. Our goal is to move toward the
NASCAR Camping World East or ARCA Series or a combination of both but still
with the desire to run some UARA events. The biggest challenge to
accomplish any of this is to secure sponsorship. We feel like we
have a great package to offer with a talented young driver, a championship
caliber race team and not to mention the likes of Larry McReynolds to help
promote the brand of any product or company. Anyone with interest, leads,
thoughts or ideas to help Team McReynolds achieve our goals would be greatly
appreciated. We strongly feel we can move Brandon to one of these top
series and not only be competitive, but help give a company a huge bang for
their buck. Please contact the shop office at 704-799-9170 to discuss the
opportunities available.
As always, check out the
UARA-Stars website, www.uara-stars.com, for race recaps, results and point
standings. And check out the new Brandon McReynolds website, www.brandonmcreynolds.com, for all the information on
Brandon and the entire team.
If you can’t make it out
to the track to enjoy the action live and see how Brandon and the team are
doing, be sure to follow along with at-track coverage and Twitter updates from www.race22.com.
About Airplus
Airplus is a brand of Implus Footcare, LLC, headquartered in North Carolina’s
Research Triangle Park. Airplus is one of the top national brands in the
footwear accessory industry, with distribution in thousands of retail outlets
across North American, and in 65 countries throughout the world. The products
incorporate the latest technology to give both men and women the ultimate in
comfort, support, protection and durability. For more information, including a
list of retail outlets, please visit www.airplusfootcare.com or call 1-800-446-7587
About Implus Footcare,
LLC
Headquartered in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, Implus is an
innovative leader in the “below the ankle” categories of insoles, performance
socks, shoelaces and shoe care. Implus’ brands include Sof Sole®, Yaktrax®,
apara®, Airplus®, SneakerBalls® and Sof Comfort®, and are distributed in over
50,000 retail outlets across North America and in 65 countries worldwide. For
more information, please visit www.implus.com or call (800) 446-7587.