Eric McClure

Lebanon, TN (June 6, 2008)—For the second time this season, Eric McClure and the Front Row Motorsports team returned to the concrete surface of Nashville Superspeedway.

After struggling with the handling of the No. 24 Hefty® brand Chevrolet in the early stages of the event, the team, under the direction of crew chief Carl Long, made huge strides in the second half of the event, before a late green flag stop left the team with a 28th-place finish.

During the practice sessions on Friday, McClure battled extremely tight conditions on both turns of the track, but at the conclusion the Hefty® Racing™ team found an issue with the right front spring. The crew addressed the issue and McClure was able to pick up seven tenths of a second during time trials, resulting in a 41st-place starting position for the Federated Auto Parts 300.

During the first half of the 300-mile event, McClure struggled to find grip in the center of the turns. The Hefty® Racing™ team took advantage of five cautions and one green flag pit stop to make major chassis adjustments in hopes of improving the handling of the No. 24 Hefty® Chevrolet.

The adjustments significantly improved the handling on McClure’s machine at the halfway mark, allowing him to post his fastest lap time of the race on lap 144. “This is the best the car has been; we could go a little more in this direction but not too radical,” stated McClure. With the laps winding down, McClure made an unscheduled pit stop on lap 219 for what felt like a flat right side tire. Unfortunately, as a result, McClure lost a position on the track and finished the Federated Auto Parts 300 in the 28th position.

With this finish, Eric McClure sits 23rd in NASCAR Nationwide Driver points and FRM remains 29th in NASCAR Owner points.

The Hefty® Racing™ team will return to action on Saturday, June 14 at Kentucky Speedway.

Eric McClure quotes:
“We were night and day better in the second half of the race. After the issue in practice, we had to guess on the setup and suffered mightily through the long green flag run early in the race. Carl and the guys worked hard and took every opportunity to make adjustments and the Hefty® brand Chevy improved nearly a second per lap. Unfortunately, we had lost a few laps by that time and the green flag stop at the end cost us a couple of laps. Nevertheless, I’m encouraged about the progress we made and I’m excited about getting to the next race and trying to build on this.”