Third-Place Finish At Caraway Gives Brunnhoelzl Confidence
GBIII Looking To Victory Lane For Final Event of the Season
After having a rough start to the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour season at Caraway Speedway (NC) in March, George Brunnhoelzl III has slowly crept up on the top of the charts at the track. While he hasn't won yet this season at the facility, multiple strong runs has kept him close as well as keeping his confidence high after his victory at Lanier National Speedway (GA) in August.
During Saturday's Tour event at Caraway, Brunnhoelzl was looking for the run to the checkered flag first, but came up a few spots short, finishing third.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, Brunnhoelzl dodged rain drops during practice and into qualifying, where he laid down the third fastest time.
"Practice was a bit misleading and hard to figure anything out between the rain showers," said Brunnhoelzl. "We threw whatever we could think at it and let it ride. We qualified third, so that was pretty good considering we didn't have (new) tires on it or anything. We were pretty happy with that, then we redrew third and that was even better, so we went onto the race."
In the race, it was all about patience. Brunnhoelzl rode around the track waiting until the end of the race to make a run at the victory, but late-race cautions spoiled his chances at his second Tour victory in less than a month.
"We basically rode around in third most of the night, trying to save our stuff for right there at the end," explained Brunnhoelzl. "There was a few cautions right there at the end of the race back to back that limited the amount of time we had to make a move, so we ran third and stayed there."
Although it wasn't a win, the third-place finish gave Brunnhoelzl just what he needed as he heads to the final Tour race at the same track this coming weekend.
"It is a good confidence boost. Everyone was happy with the third-place finish. We are hoping to end the season on a bit of a higher note, so we will see if we can bring home another win at the last race."
The final race of the 2008 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour will take place on Saturday, October 4th at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, North Carolina.
