Donny Lia’s ARCA RE/MAX Series debut was not quite what he was envisioning. Lia fought an ill-handling car all race long before getting caught up in a late-race melee that relegated him to a disappointing 37th place finish in the PFG Lester 150 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Even though it was not the result that they had in mind, Lia and the Hagans Racing team remain optimistic about getting the Eagle Creek Aviation #9 Dodge back on track for the remainder of the season.
“The car started off extremely tight. We’ve been tight here all weekend for the most part but it was as bad as ever at the start of the race. The guys kept trying to make it better but it stayed tight all race long. I appreciate the guys working hard to get the car freed up but it was so hard to drive all race long and then the wreck at the end just sealed the day off for us.”
The frustrating day came to an end 17-laps short of its scheduled end for Lia. Two cars just ahead of him collided, forcing cars scrambling everywhere to miss the crash. Lia slowed the Eagle Creek Aviation #9 but was collected in the incident when a spinning car slid up into the left side of his car.
“I saw a couple of cars wrecking up against the wall so I went low to avoid them. There were more cars ahead of them that were wrecking too, so when I was down low to miss the first one I was in a bad position for the second spinning car. I tried to go up high but the other car kept sliding up and got into me. It’s frustrating but hopefully if we won’t be in the position we were in next time out.”
“We’ve got a couple of test sessions coming up to make sure we have the kind of finishes that we are capabile of. We learned a lot this weekend. I learned a lot about these cars and the crew learned a lot about working with me, so I’m looking forward to some much better results to come.”
Donny fought a tight racecar all day at Nashville.
The handling issues left Lia and the crew of the Hagans Racing #9 Dodge scratching their heads during the race, as despite multiple adjustments with wedge and air pressure, the car still would not cooperate.
“I’m not really sure what the problem was. We tried air pressure, wedge and a bunch of other adjustments but nothing really fixed the tightness. We’re going to do some testing here in the next couple of weeks to get it all figured out so we’re a lot better off the next time at the track. In the next couple of weeks we are going to be testing, I am sure that (Crew Chief) Bobby Blount and the rest of the crew and I are going to get more familiar with one another”
Bobby Blount was equally frustrated about the result but just as optimistic as the driver after the race for the team’s future.
Unfortunately Donny's debut ended on the hook as he was an innocent victim of a crash.
“Everybody here this weekend had racecars that were tighter than they’ve ever had before,” said Blount. “Unfortunately our car was even tighter than everyone else’s. We’re going to go testing here in the next couple of days to get our setups and our communication even better.
It’s a big adjustment going from the Modifieds to these ARCA cars, but Donny showed that he’s got the talent and he’s committed to success for this team.”
