Bad Luck at SpeedFest Won't Keep Larson Down For Long
SpeedFest 2008, the unofficial start of the new season, seemed to be lining up for Larson to continue his streak of strong showings in Lakeland. Unfortunately, his motor had other plans for the 200-lap feature.
Throughout SpeedFest weekend, Larson turned heads. Every time a mechanical gremlin crept towards the team, they overcame it to continue towards a strong weekend. Larson was even able to escape a massive 17-car pileup relative unscathed in Sunday’s rain-delayed 200-lap feature.
In the end, however, a sour engine forced the #88 to an early exit from the race, but Larson is not letting the touch of bad luck keep him down as he looks towards a busy 2008 season.
“Things were going real good,” said Larson. “We had a problem in Friday night’s (qualifying) race. We fixed it in Saturday’s practice, but then the race got rained out. We were looking forward to it. We weren’t really expecting to run during the day. There’s a few minor things that could be done, the car’s a little tight and it came around towards the end of the first 100 laps. We came in and took two right-sides, went back out, and the temperature was just pegged. The motor just kind of boiled over. There’s nothing we really could do. We had a good run going and I think we had a top five car.”
Larson is not hanging his head about the way SpeedFest weekend finished. With a busy schedule ahead of him, Larson is focused on the big things to come in 2008.
“We’re going to run the ASA South Series, and then run a couple FASCAR Super Late Model races. We’re hoping to do a couple of ARCA tests, but it’s kind of early in the year to be thinking about that. ASA South is the main one. As for the expectations, Rookie of the Year would be nice, being top five in points, win a couple races, and learn a lot would be nice.”