SALEM, Indiana (April 16, 2008) - - Owensboro, Kentucky native Brett Hudson had high hopes for this past Sunday's Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 by Federated Auto Parts. Unfortunately, the Salem "Big One" just 30 laps into the 200-lap event officially erased Hudson from the hunt.
After bolting out two top-fives in both Salem events last year, Hudson was looking forward to putting his No. 25 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS into battle with thoughts of collecting his first career victory.
Hudson started off the weekend by clicking off the 13th fastest time in practice. Driving his Brett Hudson Motorsports machine around the .555-mile short track, Hudson maneuvered the facility in 17.490 seconds at 114.237 mph. "We're not there yet," Hudson said. "We're going to make some changes and see if we can drum up something for qualifying."
A former pole sitter at Salem Speedway, Hudson headed into ARCA SIM Factory pole qualifying hoping to notch his second career ARCA pole. Whipping his machine around the track in 17.338 seconds or 115.238 mph, Hudson locked ninth on the starting grid. "We were good, I just got a little too lose in on the second lap. We're starting up front; hopefully we'll be able to stay there."
Mother Nature wreaked havoc at Salem Speedway Sunday morning welcoming the 35 ARCA teams to a day of dampness and continuous showers. The start of the 200-lap event would be postponed over two hours due to inclement weather.
Finally shortly before 5:00pm local time, the field took the green flag with Hudson on a mission. With the first 15 laps of the race being run under a yellow flag condition, the field would take the green flag on 16 and it didn't take long for the action to pick up.
Showing patience early on should have paid off but for the entire BHM team, they were in for a surprise. Coming out of two turn on lap 30, a lead lap car and a lapped car tangled causing a big pileup on the backstretch.
While Hudson did a great job avoiding the carnage in front of him, he could not escape the other drivers behind him who plowed into the wreck. Hudson emerged with heavy damage. The BHM team called their drivers into the pits to try and begin fixing his automobile.
The team was able to send Hudson back into competition mangled but alive. On the restart, Hudson still showed that he had a fast machine. Unfortunately, the late model ace would radio his team a short time later that his temperatures were beginning to climb forcing Hudson to bring his car to pit road and make the hard turn to the garage.
Hudson would have to settle for a disappointing 26th place finish.
"We had some damage to the radiator and motor mounts because of the incident and it wound up having an effect after we went back to green. We thought we might be able to overcome it, but we didn't get that lucky," said Brett Hudson.
He continued, "We were just biding our time; being patience. I am not sure why we had an incident that big early in the race, but it hurt a lot of people. Nothing we can do here, we'll just have to regroup and head to Kentucky."
The BHM team would like to thank Hudson Machine Shop, G&A Trucking, Lloyds Mechanical, Fannon & Rice Cable Construction and Double H Hydraulics for serving as sponsor's on the No. 25 at Salem Speedway last weekend.
Hudson is next scheduled to compete in the Drive Smart Buckle Up Kentucky 150 at Kentucky Speedway on May 10.
