As much as I know that second place in any race is a good finish, can I just say that it still sucks a little.  The famous phrase is that second place is just the first loser, and on some level that is true.  I think its easy to let the races go where you just didn’t have it.  Maybe you struggled all day, got caught up in a wreck early, or just didn’t have the right combination.  Those days suck too, but its different when you are a contender.  We all want to win and its tough when you can smell the victory, but fall just short. 

Recently we had a race where, at the start, it looked like we could be in for a long day.  I felt like our piece should have been better then it was in qualifying, but it just wasn’t.  We started near midpack and early on in the race, our driver struggled with the handling.  But we had a good day on pit road, made the right adjustments, and our crew chief worked the strategy just right so that with just a few laps to go, we were in position to contend for the win.  We ended up getting snookered on a late restart and spent the last few laps trying to run down the eventual winner.  After the start to the day it was really good to finish second, but I think if we had just a few more laps, we might have been the team celebrating in victory lane.

But the small twinge of disappointment can’t overshadow the fact that it was a good points day for us, and an important finish for not only the team, but our driver.  Good finishes like this one give the team and the driver confidence going forward, especially when you had to fight for it.

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