LEBANON, Tenn. (June 6, 2009) – Robert Richardson, Jr. and the No. 23 Mahindra Tractors Chevrolet had a great night of racing at Nashville Superspeedway en route to their second-best finish of the 2009 season.
Starting out with a 29th-place qualifying effort, Richardson quickly showed he had a competitive Chevrolet launching to 26th on the first lap and then 24th by the 15th circuit. From there, a tight condition in the middle of the turns kept him from accelerating out of the turns to gain more speed.
Utilizing cautions and good pit stops, Richardson was able to move up to 18th for a lap-27 restart. Long green-flag runs spread the field out as the No. 23 team of R3 Motorsports went down a lap to the leaders.
From there, he would remain in the top-25 until falling back to 30th on green-flag pit stops by lap 75. He would regain his top-25 then top-20 status moving up the running order by passing more cars.
A red flag for 12:51 minutes on lap 127 had Richardson restarting 19th, two laps down to the leaders on lap 131. During that time, there were only 10 cars on the lead lap. The team made more adjustments on pit stops as Richardson and the Mahindra Tractors team kept him competitive on the track and off pit road with good stops.
After pitting under green on lap 192, Richardson returned to action in 18th place poised for his second top-20 finish of the season. However, on lap 199 he radioed in that something broke and he couldn’t steer the car.
Quickly making his way down pit road, all realized the left-front tire peeled apart on the car and thus causing the problem. The Mahindra Tractors crew leapt into action and replaced both left side tires and sent Richardson back into action in 21st place.
The good news is they didn’t lose any more positions than the three they did with the tire. This put Richardson in “chase mode” to reel in the 20th-place car. Reeling him in with five to go, Richardson gave it his all and came within a half-car length of getting 20th at the checkered flag.
For the R3 Motorsports team and Richardson, this was just what they need confidence and owner’s points wise. The finish moved them from 32nd to 31st only four markers from getting back into the guaranteed top-30 positions.
Robert Richardson, Jr; driver
Thoughts on your Nashville race: “I can’t even begin to tell you how great it is to come back to a track you’ve raced before. We picked up a lot in the first and second practice and the qualifying run was my best of the weekend.
“Once the race started, the only problem was being tight in the center off of the turns. This caused me to give up too much speed and use the throttle to try and correct the handling. Lap after lap I just kept hitting my marks and trying different lines to get better.
“It started to pay off in the middle as we kept picking up spots and, more importantly, not losing any. We were good to go for a top-20 or top-15 and then that left front tire ripped up on us with 25 laps to go. Man, I hated it for the team and all the folks from Mahindra Tractors who were here this weekend.
“But, we got back out there and finished the race, got ourselves closer to the top-30 and had a respectable showing here in Nashville. A better finish would have been nicer, but we’ll take this one and head to Kentucky next week.”
Coming right back: Richardson is returning to Nashville on Tuesday to take part in the Mahindra Tractors Celebrity Bull Riding and the CMA Fan Fest. He’ll be taking part in the parade and have an autograph session during the Fan Fest at the Mahindra Tractors display booth.
About Mahindra Tractors
Tomball, Texas-based Mahindra USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra, one of the largest tractor manufacturers in the world. Mahindra USA began selling tractors in America in 1994 and has grown rapidly due to high customer satisfaction and customer referrals. Professional-grade Mahindra tractors are designed to help consumers push more, pull more and lift more. For more information, please visit www.mahindrausa.com.
R3 Motorsports Media Relations Contact – Tim Packman - 704-507-1838 – timpackman@yahoo.com