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Sean Murphy Wins 2008 SPEEDFEST
SPEEDFEST - USA Speedway
Lakeland, FL Sunday January 27, 2008
Sean Murphy Celebrates Big Win at USA Speedway's Annual SPEEDFEST
(photo
credit: speed51.com 51/Jamie Williams)
Sean Murphy piloted the #32 ASILIMITED, Akzo Nobel, Spectrum Metal
Finishing
Late Model to Victory Lane today in the SPEEDFEST Crate Late Model 100
at
USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Florida. Murphy started 5th but
soon
after the start cut down a tire and had to stop on pit road. It
appeared
Murphy and the SS Racing team was once again going to be bad-lucked out
of
winning. Murphy and the SS Racing crew were plagued all last year with
unlucky mishaps and odd endings that kept them from a win. But Murphy
drove
with determination back through the field to take the lead and win.
"We finally won," said Murphy, who was exhausted from the long battle
to
victory lane. "We always believed we were a winning team, but when you
miss
win after win with dumb luck you start wonder if it will ever happen."
"When we got the flat tire we did what we always have done in adversity
and
just kept going forward," added Murphy. "I knew I had my work cut out
for
me, but I also knew we had a good enough car to win. With every race we
set
out to win. This one was no different, but it certainly was good to get
that
back-luck monster off our backs!"
The flat tire came about 30-laps into the race. 3-time ASA Champion
Butch
Miller was right there with the rest of the SS GreenLight Crew to make
a
quick change. By lap-50 Murphy had driven back inside the top ten. The
higher up Murphy got the tougher the racing became. Murphy had to
balance
being patient with being aggressive enough to make necessary passes in
limited time.
Murphy drove underneath Travis Wilson and the two cars made contact.
Wilson
won the battle at first and Murphy had to tuck in behind and wait for
the
right timing. On lap-67 Murphy made the move to pass Wilson for fourth
place. On lap-73 Murphy passed Chris Stump and was quickly reeling in
long
time veteran driver Eddie Hoffman. With ten laps to go Murphy and
Hoffman
were in a heated but clean old fashioned short track racing battle.
A caution came out with just 4-laps remaining. On the restart Murphy
drove
underneath Hoffman, who then attempted to squeeze out Murphy. The two
cars
made contact and Hoffman spun. Officials ruled Murphy would stay in the
lead
spot on the restart. With the fans on their feet Murphy took the
restart and
held off a field of hard charging cars behind him to take the win.
Congratulations to Sean Murphy and SSGreenLight Racing for kicking off
the
2008 Season in Victory Lane!
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