Marstons Mills, MA –April 18, 2012-At the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, Jay Blake’s Permatex/Follow A Dream team made not just its quickest and fastest run of all time but the two quickest and two fastest.
Driver Todd Veney ran a 5.52 at 262.64 mph off the trailer in the first session and a 5.53 at 261.98 mph Saturday afternoon in the final session and the eventually settled into the No. 2 qualifying position, equaling a career high established last year at this race. After an easy win over first-round opponent Bill Naves, who broke, Veney lost to perennial championship contender Mickey Ferro in the quarterfinals, 5.57/260 to 5.69/258.
“It was still a good weekend for our team,” Veney said. “Tuner Tommy Howell made some great calls and had this car running better than it’s ever run before. I hated losing to Mickey, but he’s one of the top drivers in the country for a reason, and we out-qualified a lot of great teams.”
“We had 20 kids from a local shelter in the pit with us this weekend, and it was great for our team to be around them and, hopefully, great for them to be around us,” Blake said. “Losing in the second round was a huge disappointment after the performance we had earlier in the weekend, but we’re expecting really big things this year. I spoke at the New York International Auto Show in New York City right before this race, and it’s like I told those students: Everybody wants to win every time, but only one team is going to.”