After a well received off weekend, Petty and his crew headed to Newton, Iowa for the next race on the schedule. What looked to be a promising finish early turned bad as a string of mechanical failures plagued Jeremy Petty in the number 23 Hixson Motorsports entry this weekend at the Prairie Meadows 200. With a good practice time and an equally good qualifying effort, the weekend started out with a promising forecast. Petty spent practice fine tuning the car to prepare for a decent qualifying effort, which was the first time Petty has been able to qualify in the past five races due to weather.
Petty started the race in the 23rd spot. While running in the top twenty thirty laps in, Petty lost all use of his brakes, but managed to keep the 23 Dodge running at a respectable pace. Petty was simply trying to nurse the wounded car to the finish line for what was looking to be yet another decent points night for the team. But it all changed dramatically on lap 161, when coming out of turn four the right rear axle of the car snapped in two just inside the drive plate. This put Petty behind the wall under green flag conditions for seventeen laps as the crew repaired the rear of the car. Quickly, the crew put a new axle back in and got Petty back on the track with fifteen laps remaining in the race. Although spending some time behind the wall, the crew worked hard to avoid what could have been Petty’s first DNF of the season.
“It was just one of those races that everybody has at some point in the season. But it’s still very disappointing. We had a good car for Iowa: we were good in practice and in qualifying as well. I really feel like we had a top fifteen car, but mechanical failures happen, and the guys did a great job getting it put back together so we could get back out on the track and finish the race to salvage some points.”
Petty and the crew are back at the shop in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, to make necessary repairs to the car as they prepare to head to Sparta, Kentucky for the second time this year. The Click it or Ticket Buckle-Up Kentucky 150 will take place Saturday evening. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED with the green flag dropping at 9:45 pm Est.
