New Smyrna Speedway: Hooker Brothers Racing - Post Race Update #8 from Florida - Feb 14, 2009

NEW SMYRNA, FL -- The #38 Hooker Brothers Racing crew got up early, packed their bags, cleaned the condo and headed to the track to organize the trailer and hook up the truck to pull out immediately after their eighth race in the nine nights at the New Smyrna Speedway.

Media coverage for the Hooker Team and their sponsors continued as Greg MacPherson of Inside Track Motorsport News made a visit to the Hooker pit to interview Kirk and get a summary of the team’s week of racing. Dave Franks Photos from Ontario took some great pictures that should find their way into the magazine as well as on his website.  Dave got some great shots by riding in the back of the pace truck and the Hooker Team would like to thank him for the great job and congratulate him on his 30 years of success in business. 

Race Time Radio also interviewed Kirk by telephone on their live Monday night radio show as well as other magazines spent some time with the team, taking pictures and interviewing the colorful Canadian driver.

The #38 Pepsi Chevy started on the pole for the final 25 lap feature and Kirk would have his hands full keeping the 10 car field behind him. The #4b, #08, #26, #19, #27, #92, #63, #21 and #82 doubled up behind Kirk to take the green flag that quickly turned to caution as the #9z spun coming off  turn two resulting in a complete restart.

The #4b was quick to challenge Kirk for the lead and took over at the end of lap one followed by the #26 that put Kirk back to third on the second lap. The #63 got into Kirk causing him to wobble coming out of turn four and make contact with the #19 putting him into a spin on the front stretch bringing out the caution. The #08 got a run on Kirk on the following restart that put him 4th with the #26 leading the field.

With 8 laps completed, the #63 tried to pass the #92 as the #92 was trying to find a lane to get past the #38 resulting in the #63 and #92 getting together on the backstretch gathering up the #27 in the process. The #63 and #27 were able to continue however; the night was done for the #92. Kirk gave the aggressive #63 plenty of room on the restart and the #19 took advantage of the opening and followed him through to put the #38 Lucas Oil Chevy into 6th.

The #26 continued to lead at the half way mark and with only one car falling well back behind the #38, Kirk was able to concentrate on catching the #19 without pressure from behind. With 5 laps to go, the field was well spread out with no challenges for positions and they continued to increase the gaps between cars through the remaining laps allowing the #26 to win well ahead of the #4b followed by the #08, #63, #19, #38 and #82.

The crew put on their best set of used tires for the race and it was concluded that it was the difference between how they ran compared to the cars that finished in front of them with new ones. The Hooker crew loaded the car and headed home immediately after their 6th place finish with 4th overall in the series.

Although expectations were higher for the Hooker Team, Kirk summed it up by saying, "nobody got hurt, nobody got sick, the car is in one piece, we drank a bunch of beer and had allot of laughs, making it a pretty good Speed Weeks."

The Hooker Team would like to thank all those who made the annual week of racing in Florida a success and I would personally like to thank Randy & Kirk Hooker as well as the entire crew as they made my vacation a very enjoyable one. It was a pleasure doing the updates, golfing with Randy and playing an active role on a first class race team consisting of a great group of guys. Enjoy your involvement with racing throughout the 2009 season and I look forward to next year................Ken

(Thanks to Ken Spira for his updates throughout the week!... GregM.)