By Penny Aicardi

THOMPSON, CT -July 13, 2008- It was a bittersweet ending for Max Dumarey and his Fadden Racing crew at Thompson International Speedway Saturday night. The driver of the #16 BODYCOACH.NET Chevrolet posted a solid eleventh place finish in the NASCAR Camping World Series East’s Full Fender Frenzy 100, but fell one position short of their goal for a top-10. Dumarey survived late-race damage to post the finish, his best of the young 2008 season.

“Overall, we’re really happy with this finish,” said Dumarey. “The damage that we got in that accident ten laps before the end was just cosmetic. It really didn’t hurt the car. We probably lost a position or two getting through the accident, but we made it through. We definitely had a top-10 car here tonight.”

Dumarey was seventh fastest in the first practice session and backed it up with a qualifying effort of 20.700 seconds (108.696 mph) for a 14th place starting position. Dumarey maintained that position through the first 30 laps of the race and started moving up before an onslaught of cautions dramatically slowed the pace.

“We were a little bit loose in the beginning,” said Dumarey. “But one of the cars got into me and when he did, it actually tightened my car up. It helped me out a lot.”

Dumarey ran around the 12th position through the second half of the race, but fell back to 15th after trying to avoid a spin in turn two on lap 91. Two cars had made contact and drivers were scattering everywhere to avoid the carnage.

“The 44 spun and I had to go in the grass in turn two to avoid the crash. It was just one big cloud and I couldn’t see anything. I just drove through and I got hit a little, but it really didn’t damage the car. It’s not that bad. I don’t care about things like that – those things you can’t control. It was just a racing incident,” said Dumarey.

The final restart set up a green-white-checker finish with Dumarey advancing four positions to cross the line in 11th.

“The car was good. I need to have more experience with the close side-by-side racing that you have on these short tracks. We’re getting there. Right now I think I’m not aggressive enough with that, but that comes with experience. We’re making progress every week and that’s important to this program.”

Dumarey returns to action next weekend, July 19th, at Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tenn. for the NASCAR Camping World Series 150.








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