RPW Column: Qualifying & Gear Ultimately Hurt Michael Maresca’s Chances At DIRTcar Gator Thursday

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – BARBERVILLE, FL – You have to wonder if Michael Maresca could have captured a DIRTcar Nationals gator on Thursday night, if he had qualified better.

Forced to start deep in the field in the 19th position, Maresca worked his butt off throughout the 30-lap main event to come away with a solid third place finish.

It was his second consecutive podium finish of the week at Volusia Speedway Park. He came home in the same position on Wednesday evening.

Unfortunately for Maresca and the St. Lawrence Radiology team. When you start so far back, in a short race, you put yourself behind the eight ball and sometimes, it’s hard to make up.

“We buried ourselves in a hole after qualifying,” Maresca said. “We had a really good car all night. I think with the track being a little bit wetter, it threw me off on my gear selection.”

Maresca was pleased with how his car worked on Thursday evening. Ultimately, however, track conditions and a multitude of variables sealed his fate.

“I feel like we had a really good race car again, just like last night.” He said. “We were able to capitalize on good restarts, but congrats to Max and Billy. I couldn’t keep up with them tonight.”

With the rain that hit the Volusia Speedway Park on Thursday evening, the track started out narrow but continued to widen out as the event went on. That worked to Maresca’s advantage, but the fact that the surface held moisture threw his team a curveball.

“I think I was just a little bit under-geared to keep up with those two on this type of track,” he said. “I know our car is good so we are just going to keep trucking and hopefully contend for a win tomorrow or Saturday.”

Seeing a track like the competitors encountered Thursday can do nothing but help Maresca build a solid notebook of ideas if this type of situation ever presented itself again.

“Now we know, if we get rain again, the officials will do everything they can so we race on that night,” he said. “Now we’ll kind of know what to do, gear-wise, next time. I’m kind of looking forward to it.”