Cole Powell took hit after hit in Saturday night’s Carolina Farm Credit 150 at North Carolina’s Bowman Gray Stadium, but still battled back to salvage a 17th-place finish in the 26-car field.  Powell also brought his No. 73 machine home in one piece, something many in the event only wish they could say.

“With the scoring here, since they don’t have transponders, once we started going laps down we weren’t really sure how many laps down we were,” said Powell.  “If I knew I was only one lap down I probably would have gone a little harder but the guys were telling me I was 10 laps down, so it wasn’t even worth it.  They said in the driver’s meeting they don’t have ‘Lucky Dog’ awards here so there was really no point in doing anything.  So I just tried to bring the car home in one piece and it’s in one piece.  We broke a drive shaft in practice and the car was just kind of terrible the whole day.  So really, for a day like today, the car is in one piece so that’s good and we’ll be happy for that.”

Typically running on the wider NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour tires, the smaller tires run at Bowman Gray were an adjustment for Powell.

“The tires were a lot different,” said Powell.  “Once you burned up your right rear tire the car just kind of faded right away rather than being able to give and take a little more with the bigger tires.  With these little tires, as soon as you spun them it would take a couple laps to cool down.  If you spun them twice you were kind of done.  So there was a big difference between the big tires and small tires.  I just think if the car was just handling a little better and maybe we had gotten a couple breaks and didn’t get into it with that No. 68 car early on then it might have been a different outcome.  But I guess that’s Bowman Gray for you.”

Now Powell is optimistic that his bad luck is behind him and is looking for a successful run in Thunder Valley in Wednesday night’s UNOH Perfect Storm 150 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“I’m pretty excited about that,” said Powell.  “I’ve got Andy Petree’s car all ready to go.  We’re going to his shop (Monday) to put a few final touches on the car and put some stickers on it to get it looking all pretty and then go run the thing.  I’m pumped.  It’s a fast track and hopefully we hit the setup right off the trailer and it’s fast so we don’t have to do too much work.”

Bad Luck Bites Cole Powell at Bowman Gray Stadium

Powell Ready to Rebound in Bristol Motor Speedway Showdown