Moore sought better finish in debut Scarborough driver gains valuable experience, respect of crew chief

LOUDON, N.H. – Twenty-one-year-old Ryan Moore of Scarborough had hoped to gain respect, valuable seat time and a good finish in his Busch Series debut in the New England 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway Saturday afternoon.

He certainly earned the respect of his crew chief, crew members and his teammates; he obtained important seat time and it appeared he would have had a respectable finish if he hadn’t been spun out of the race by Tim Fedewa on lap 165.

Moore, who qualified 19th, wound up finishing 34th in the No. 81 Oreo/Kraft Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.

His DEI teammate, Martin Truex Jr., won the race.

Moore ran between 15th-20th most of the race and was about to move past Fedewa on the inside into 17th place on lap 165 when Fedewa hit Moore’s left rear bumper and spun him into the wall.

“It was a disappointing finish,” said Moore. “I didn’t have a great car to start. It was real tight. But the guys kept getting it better and better. I was cruising around there at the end. I got an awesome restart. I drove underneath the 12 car [Fedewa] and he didn’t like it, I guess. We got into turn four and he drilled me in the butt and turned me around.”

Moore said they had a top-15 care.

“We were a lot better than a lot of the guys in front of me,” he said. “There were five of them right there that we were better than. I was just trying to race them clean. I could get my nose under them but I couldn’t complete the pass so I backed out of it. I thought that’s how you were supposed to race people.

“I’m only 21. I’ve got a lot of racing left and a lot to prove. He’s [Fedewa] short on time and has to prove himself real quick. He just made the wrong move. It was a good effort, I guess, but I feel bad for the guys. They built this car in nine days but now it’s junk because of a mistake.”

Fedewa defended himself and also praised Moore.

“He just needs to learn how to race in the Busch series,” said Fedewa. “If you’re going to use your bumper [to move someone out of the way], that’s fine. But you’d better expect to get it used back on you.

“He drove under me and hit me. It was a little slide [me up the track] job,” said Fedewa. “It was his first race and I hated for that to happen to him. I got into the back of him. I was racing a little hard with him but when he races you hard and everyone around you races hard, that’s when that stuff happens.”

“He did a good job for the first time out. A heckuva’ job. They’ve got a lot to look forward to with him,” Fedewa added.

“We were real happy with Ryan,” said Moore’s crew chief Tony Eury Sr., the former crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. “I don’t think we had a very good car for him. The car was really tight.

“We adjusted on it and adjusted on it. We tried to get it the best we could. He did a heckuva’ job. We got back there in the mess where we shouldn’t have been. We had a better car than where we were [18th] but our pit strategy got us back there.”

DEI engine specialist Jeff Clark added, “It was unfortunate what happened with the 12 car. It wasn’t Ryan’s doing. He was patient all day. He had real good car control. He’s going to be a good driver in the future. He just needs more seat time at this level.”

Truex Jr. said Moore “looked really comfortable out there. It looked like he’d been doing it for a year. He was pretty impressive for his first run.”

Truex said incidents like the one Moore was involved in are parts of the learning curve.

“He’ll have to figure out who he can race and who he can’t. And how you’ve got to race certain people. That’s probably what bit him today. All that stuff comes with experience.

“He’s definitely got what it takes to be fast and win races.”

Moore said he was “honored” to drive for the DEI team and the sponsors and he learned that “you’ve got to race hard every lap. And if you race in the back where I was, no one has a lot of respect for you.”

Moore is scheduled to run two more Busch races in addition to his Busch North schedule: the Emerson Radio 250 at Richmond International Raceway on Sept. 9 and the Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 19.

“I need to get my car better for practice next time. If I’m able to get it dialed in a little better, then we can just fine-tune it during the race instead of having to make some big changes,” said Moore.

“I need to get more seat time in these cars so when we go to Richmond, we can contend for a win instead of running 15th to 20th and getting wrecked. I need to be better all-around,”

Moore added.

“With what he learned on Friday and in qualifying, I think he’ll be a lot better at Richmond. And, hopefully, we’ll give him a lot better car,” Eury Sr. said.