Third-place finish has Moore back in contention

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LOUDON, N.H. – Scarborough’s Kelly Moore won his only Busch North series points championship in 1995. The man who began racing on the tour in 1987 is now in position to annex another title.

Moore’s third-place finish in Saturday’s New England 125 at New Hampshire International Speedway moved him past Mike Johnson into second place in the points chase, 143 points behind leader Mike Olsen of North Haverhill, N.H.

Olsen wound up 11th.

Defending two-time series champ Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H. notched his second win of the season and Martin Truex Jr. of Mayette, N.J., claimed second.

Moore, who started seventh, was one of four Maine residents to finish in the top 11.

Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold was ninth after starting 23rd. Strong’s Tracy Gordon moved up six slots from his starting spot to finish 10th and Sanford’s Mike Gallo was 11th after starting 21st.

Detroit’s Adam Friend showed a 13-place improvement in crossing the finish line 19th. Morrill’s Travis Benjamin and Eliot’s Carey Heath, the only woman in the field, finished where they started in 28th and 34th, respectively; and Turner’s Mike Rowe wound up last (41st) due to engine failure on the eighth lap. Rowe qualified ninth.

Tom Carey of Orange, Mass., driving for the Santerre-Reece Motorsports Team co-owned by Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre, qualified on the outside pole but ran into car problems that ended his day on lap 66.

Carey, whose Chevy was sponsored by E.J. Prescott of Gardiner, had run the New England 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race earlier in the afternoon and wound up 11th. He had started eighth. He drives for the E.J. Prescott/Healey and Associates Chevrolet.

Moore was pleased with his showing. Moore and 16 other cars on the lead lap moved up one spot when Dale Shaw was penalized for a last-lap incident with Dale Quarterley, who took the checkered flag in fifth place. Shaw was moved back to the last spot on the lead lap: 18th.

“I’m real happy to come out of here with a third-place finish,” said Moore. “In the big picture, things are getting a little brighter. We’re nearing the end of the tunnel. We’re halfway through the season, we moved up to second place in the points and we gained a lot on the leader. Things are looking good.”

Moore, who ran just 12 Busch North races last year because he didn’t have a primary sponsor, gained 38 points on Olsen. Moore has a primary sponsor this year in NAPA Auto Care Centers.

Moore said he had to make a lot of adjustments to the car between Thursday’s qualifying run and Saturday’s race.

“I changed a helluva’ lot more than most people would have after qualifying seventh. I didn’t like the feel of the car in qualifying,” said Moore who pointed out that one of his changes was two springs.

He said they made changes both on Friday and Saturday.

His car got “real loose” late in the race which prevented him from making a dash for the win.

“We had to bide our time and, luckily, we didn’t get pressured too bad from behind. The 40 car [Matt Kobyluck] pressured us but we were able to hold on,” said Moore, the Busch North series all-time leader in victories with 21 including two this season.

Penfold and Gallo also left the track with smiles on their faces but Gordon was disappointed.

“I was very happy. I didn’t have a clue what the car was going to do,” said the 39-year-old Penfold. “We actually put in a set-up that we had when we ran second here last year before we got wrecked. It worked really well. The last 25 laps, we lost a cylinder. It would cut in and out.

“So when it was dead and I’d come out of the corner, I could mash the gas and the car wouldn’t get loose. Those guys couldn’t do that. So it kind of helped me in ways. It hurt me during the long runs in the straightaways. But you could race on the outside today. I passed quite a few guys on the outside.”

Gallo, a native New Yorker, was black-flagged and penalized twice. He was put to the end of the line of cars on the lead lap. He was penalized once for not lining up properly for a restart and a second time for speeding on pit road.

“We came from the back twice to finish 11th. I felt the penalties were very unfair. But I’ll take it because I don’t run the tour every week. I think they look for guys like us who pick and choose our races,” said the 27-year-old Gallo. “We had a fantastic run. We definitely had a top five car if not a car to win the race.”

Gordon thought he had a car that could have finished higher.

“To start off with, I thought we had a winning car. Then it just tightened up too much at the end and we were pushing. I was disappointed with our finish,” said Gordon.

Rookie Benjamin and his team learned a valuable lesson.

“I thought we had a real good car but we got the sparkplug wire pattern backwards. We’ve run Chevys my whole life and this is our first year with the Fords. It’s just a learning curve that a rookie team has to make. We won’t do that again.”

The 26-year-old Heath is also a first-year Busch North series driver who is gaining experience.

“The last time I was here I hit a wall in practice and never came back here and tested. It’s a little tough to come back off something like that,” Heath said. “I don’t have any experience here. I needed time here and I haven’t had any. It’s difficult to run here [without experience].

“I had problems with my tires. I had to come back in the pits and change my left side tires which I hadn’t planned on doing. That threw me back. But, overall, I was just slow. There’s no other explanation other than being slow.”