After making an engine change and switching

to a back-up car on the first day of practice

and then qualifying 17th, Mason Mingus had

already worked enough for a typical race

weekend before the 100-lap event ever took

the green flag Monday at Winchester

Speedway (IN).  And he also knew he had a

lot of work left to do to if he was going to get

to the front of the field in the ultra-competitive

CRA Super Series before the checkered flag

flew.

“We didn’t have a really great qualifying run

again but we started 16th,” said Mingus. 

“We just kind of stayed patient saved our tires

and worked our way to the front.  We were

running third at one point but the #111 car kind of got in to us there towards the end and we ended up dropping back to fourth and just kind of rode the last 10 to 15 laps out in fourth place.”

His fourth place finish hardly reflects the struggles Mingus went through just to get to race day at the high banks of Winchester Speedway.

“We had a brand new car that we had only run one race at Dixie with,” explained Mingus.  “And in the first practice of the day on Saturday I kind of made a bad move and turned down in front of somebody and we ended up getting in to the wall.  It totaled the car, so we got our back up car out and spent all night changing the motor out in our back up car and brought it out Sunday.  We didn’t have a great qualifying run, qualified 17th, but luckily we ended up having a really good race car.”

Once the green flag flew, Mingus knew he had a lot of ground to cover and a short period of time to do it in, but he made sure he paced himself to be in the position he wanted at the end.

“We knew we had to do something because we didn’t have a good qualifying run,” said Mingus.  “We made changes after qualifying and we were just going to try to go out and try to be patient in the first part of the race.  We picked off a few spots that we knew we were faster than and then we just got in front of some people and rode it out.  When we got around sixth place and about 30 laps to go we really tried to start picking them off.”

With his streak of top-10 finishes now at three, Mingus hopes that the strength his team showed this weekend will carry over for them into the remainder of the season.

“We had a good run,” admitted Mingus.  “Especially after everything we had to overcome this weekend to bring a backup car out and have that good of a race car was really a good sign for when we come back for the Winchester 400.  So hopefully we’ll have a good car and we’ll try to get our other car fixed and get back for maybe Berlin.”

Next up for Mingus will be the CRA event at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, GA on September 17th.

Mingus Overcomes Obstacles for Fourth at Winchester

Crash and Late Race Contact Almost Cost Mingus a Top-Five Finish

Mingus brought home a hard fought top-5 finish. (Speed51.com Photo)