THE DEJECTION
OF A NUFF RACING LEAGUE STAR
7/25/9
DaleReynolds24
Bear with me while I write this. I’m
writing this while it’s still fresh in my mind, so to
those that may be offended, I apologize in advance.
When you run well, you expect to finish well. It’s
common with any racer that turns his first lap at a
given racetrack. If you run like absolute sh)t, you want
to kick yourself in the mouth and figure out why
everyone is so much faster. This isn’t on the topic of
cheating. This is on the topic of having come so close,
but coming up short.
Now, why am I writing this? You might be asking yourself
that same question. But as of recently, it seems like
this team cannot seem to catch a break. To those that
think I don’t have bad luck, well turns out that I do.
I’ll firstly start off with Daytona. The Coke Zero 400.
Really, it was a great race. Everyone minded their own
business and everyone was doing very well. However, it
would soon turn out to be the start of some crappy luck.
Thegift, Abbottazz and myself were in the top 3 looking
to make a great run to the finish. But as soon as we got
to even start performing these calculated moves, two
cautions right at the end of the race halt any kind of
run that we had. I got stuck in 3rd for the final
result.
Next we move onto Chicago. Now, normally you will hear
me say that I’m good but I’m not the fastest. Well
thanks to a lot of teammate help, for once in my career
(for once on the Intermediate tracks) I had the car to
beat the whole race. But, again the bad luck demon came
out again. Fuel strategy bit me in the a*s. Abbotttazz
won by pitting under the last caution, while I didn’t.
Of course, this time I expected another caution at the
end of the race. But bad luck struck and we went green
all the way to the end. 2 laps short of accomplishing a
goal.
Then finally, we move onto Indy. Not such a shocker that
once again we were fast. We won the Pure Sim series,
then backed it up with another win in the FNTS. We were
the hottest thing at Indy. But once again. Here we
f**king go again. Speeding onto pit lane on lap 112 took
the fastest car out of the contention, after having the
brakes mashed down on the car and the car STILL didn’t
stop. But this is hard to swallow. This is Indy. This is
the biggest racetrack in the whole world and everyone
dreams of an Indy win. And until lap 112, it seemed like
a Reynolds Racing car had it locked up. What sucks is
that not only did I lose the win, my teammate who ran
2nd all race could not capitalize on my accident and we
both lost the race for my team.
What do you do after not running at New Hampshire, then
you get bit 3 weeks in a row to finish 3rd each time
when you have had the opportunity to win the race
staring you down in the face? With the controversy I
started in the Pure-Sim series and the really dejected
feeling after once again not getting the win (or wins)
that I feel like I deserve, I really just don’t know
what to do. I get out of the racecar and put on a fake
smile for the media. Put on my Dupont hat, and
half-heartedly try to give a nice interview for those
watching on T.V. even though I want to tell them that
I’m severely pissed off and want to sock someone in the
f**king face after all this sh(t.
We go onto Pocono for the next one. I feel like if I
don’t win at Pocono, given that I would exchange my
Daytona 500 win for a Pocono win, I might as well take
the rest of the f**king year off. That’s how I feel.
Maybe come tomorrow morning I’ll think differently. All
I can think of is my teammate, who is like my rival when
it comes to Pocono because we’re both driving hard to
win at our home track. Then I think of how he has 2
Pocono trophies, and how each time I have raced there I
have choked every time.
It’s not a good feeling at all when you work so hard and
you have the fastest car ad you end up getting beat by
something other than actually being on the racetrack.
And granted before the blasted pit stop that bit me for
speeding, me and my teammate were actually close so I
can’t say I blew everyone away. But the way I chased
everyone down from 35 seconds behind the leader with 45
to go all the way to 7 seconds down by the time the
checkered flag waved, there is without a doubt in my
mind that we really were the fastest car.
I have never felt so shitty after finishing 3rd for 3
straight races. I would love to take a 3rd place finish
any day. But when it’s been 3 races that we have had an
amazing shot at winning and something held us back from
winning, you get depressed because it’s not your own
doing that takes you out.
So what do I do and my team do from here on out? I’ll
tell you this right now. If Indy was a sign, you all had
better be praying for mercy at Pocono.
Nuff Sed
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