(Image: James Adams Jr.)
26 Promotions – Las Cruces, NM – (May 31, 2018) – After a late-race incident on Saturday left him a couple of laps short of completing the feature, Jarrett Martin rebounded for a twelfth-place finish on Sunday night at Southern New Mexico Speedway.
“Going into the weekend I was excited to get out of town in the sprint car for the first time,” said Martin. “I have always had success at Southern New Mexico Speedway in the micro and was hoping it would translate over a little bit.”
Salute to Indy night one kicked off with heat race action where Martin would advance to fifth from his eighth-place starting position. Missing the feature re-draw, Martin would start the 25-lap feature in tenth.
“I was keeping a close eye on the track all night, and I knew it was going away pretty bad, so we tightened the car up quite a bit for the feature,” explained Martin. “I was pretty good at the beginning of the race, but I got up out of the groove a few laps in and lost a couple of spots, and then the track really started to take rubber.”
With the track conditions quickly changing, Martin adjusted his top wing to help dial the car in.
“I rolled the wing forward some, and the car really came in. I was going down into turn three behind a couple of cars, and I had to slow up too much in the corner and spun myself out,” he said. “From there I was moving through the field pretty well, and the car was pretty much right on, but I had to drive it in the corner really far. We were going forward and ended up making contact with another car. The nose wing fell down, and we bent a couple of rods, so I just pulled it off the track with a couple of laps left.”
Martin officially ended night one with a 16th-place finish.
“On Sunday we did our normal maintenance on the car and repaired the damage from the night before,” he said. “Even though we didn’t have a good result on Saturday, I knew we had the potential to be fast again on Sunday.”
Advancing from sixth to fourth in his heat race placed Martin on the inside of the sixth row to start Sunday night’s feature.
“The track was looking a lot like it was the previous night before the feature, so we made almost the same adjustments,” said Martin. “We actually tried to keep it a little more free so we could be better in the rubber, but it ended up being too loose for almost the entire race.”
Martin spent most of the night around tenth as the final 20-laps were run caution free.
“I knew after overdriving the car the night before that I needed to use my head and make it to the end running as well as I could,” he said. “I had a couple good back and forth races with some guys during that run, but I had to search a little too much, and we were too free to hang on to those positions.”
Martin crossed the finish line with a 12th-place finish to conclude the Salute to Indy weekend.
“I feel better in the car every week, and we are coming along with the setup,” he said. “We showed a lot of promise this weekend, so I'm excited to get back to Arizona Speedway to see what we can put together at the next race.”
Martin returns to the Streaking Racing 20az micro sprint this weekend at Central Arizona Speedway for the Ernie Mincy Tribute race.
Jarrett Martin would like to thank Steve Stone Racing, Torco Race Fuels, Macenzie Motorsports, Southwest T-Shirt Company, The Race Shack, Paint by Steve, and J&J Auto Racing for their support.
Saturday’s Results
Heat: 8th - > 5th
Feature: 10th -> 16th
Sunday’s Results
Heat: 6th -> 4th
Feature: 11th - > 12th
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jarrett.martin.20
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmartinracing
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jarrettmartinracing/
Website: http://www.jarrettmartinracing.com
Article Credit: 26 Promotions