Mingus Walks Away from Columbus With 11th

Heat Doesn't Slow Rookie, but Contact Spoils Run

An 11th-place finish does not show how well CRA Rookie Mason Mingus ran at Columbus Motor Speedway (OH).  The youngster from Bentwood, Tennessee drove his 811 Call Before you dig Chevy into the top three and hung around there until the late stages when restarts kept him pinned to the outside and contact sent him out of the top 10 in the closing laps.

"Our car could really gain on the longer runs and it would roll up under anyone in the center of the corner," said Mingus.  "We kept having cautions there at the end of the race and the 11 car (Jeff Lane) got into us after a restart and we got kicked high and got all kinds of junk on our tires.  We ran well, but we should have had a better finish."

The heat was the real factor that took its toll on several drivers.  Mingus, being a young, athletic high school student was in better shape than most of the older drivers.  However, when the track temp is well into the triple digets, it's easy to hot in the car.

"That was the worst I have ever felt in a racecar," said Mingus.  "It was really hot and I ran out of water there at the end of the race.  All I wanted to do when I got out of the racecar was dump water on me."

For Mingus this was the second-straight event where he went to a track that he had not seen.  The results don't show as much promise as that of the fact both races he finish with the car intact.

Mingus will take a few weeks off the recharge the batteries and then he will head back to Indiana for the next CRA race on Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th at the Lucas Oil Raceway (IN).  Feature events start at 2:30pm with the CRA Super Series going 100 laps.  

Mason Mingus in his 811 dig Chevy (51 Photo)