Mooresville, NC (August 6, 2012)- Cory Joyce joined the rest of the UARA-STARS competitors at Concord Speedway on Saturday for the City Chevrolet 150, second of three races in a row on the schedule. With a strong, top-10 finish in sight, Joyce was knocked out of contention with three laps when he was involved in a wild multi-car incident. The damage sustained to the No. 20 Ultimate Turf Chevy was too severe for Joyce to continue to the checkers, handing him a 13th place finish.
Practice day at Concord Speedway and the ensuing practice sessions on Saturday proved to be valuable for the Cory Joyce Racing team as they worked diligently to improve a tight handling condition. Though they made several adjustments during all of the sessions, Joyce reported to his team that he needed more help through the turns prior to qualifying. The changes made didn’t seem to help for the qualifying session as the rookie of the year contender’s qualifying lap placed him near the tail of the field for the start of the 150 lap race.
After the drop of the green flag, Joyce became more comfortable with the track conditions inside his Ultimate Turf Chevy and began to get in a rhythm. Moving up methodically from his 21st starting position, Joyce picked his way through the pack and well inside the top-10 at the halfway point. Joyce reported to his crew that he was able to move his line around and find spots on the track that helped the handling of his Impala improve. By using up all the real estate on the track surface, he was able to gain the speed he needed to march up to the eighth position with less than 20 laps to go.
Clicking off laps in a comfortable position, within striking distance of the leaders, Joyce planned to bide his time until the end and hang on to a much needed top-10 finish. With just three laps remaining however, Joyce was riding in eighth when he was struck by another competitor and sent sailing into several others around him. The multi-car pile up caused heavy damage to the No. 20 Ultimate Turf Chevy and Joyce ended his evening in 13th.
“It’s a shame that something like this had to happen to our Ultimate Turf Chevy. The team worked really hard after practice to make the right adjustments and I was just using the track to make it better as the night went on,” Joyce explained.
“We have a lot of work to do to get fixed up before Tri-County next weekend and hopefully we can be just as strong and not end up knocked out like tonight.”