A look at Sunday’s Cup race showed NASCAR veterans doing exactly what Grant was doing and showed Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and others triggering multiple car wrecks when bump drafting went bad which it does without “fault” by any driver. In Saturday’s truck race, draft speeds sometimes exceeded 190 miles per hour. If a racer loses the draft, he can not be competitive. All of us have been on the interstate when the left lane cars are going too fast and the right lane cars are going too slow. We have a choice whether we run 80 miles per hour with the fast traffic or follow an 18 wheeler at 60 miles per hour. In a race, a driver has to decide whether he is going to “ride” at 175 miles per hour or race in a lane with faster speeds and smaller gaps. Grant chose to race and it didn’t work out.

” We had a top 5 truck and gave up a safe 10-15th place finish by getting out of the inside line. I would do it again, as I will always go to the front, if my car allows it and it doesn’t require a crazy move that endangers others. When it was 3 laps to the checkers, I went. When you have to go, you have to go.”

Grant and crew member Tom Bear left Daytona late Sunday afternoon, driving back to the Charlotte, North Carolina shop. Grant had planned to unload the car and do some minor work on the car and then head to Alabama for Christmas. That trip will be delayed as he will take the car to the Roush Yates chassis dyno today to evaluate the driveline performance. “Our engines have the best part of our ARCA program and part of the engine package is evaluating the engine and drive components by dyno testing before and after testing and racing. We are fortunate to be able to go to the dyno and even luckier that Nick Ramey handles the Roush Yates ARCA program. Nick has been instrumental in keeping us at the top of the field in every ARCA race.”

“I really appreciate Tom Bear, Jeremy Lundy, Thomas Praytor and Ben Hill traveling long distances and working hard throughout the long weekend. Danica Patrick had 2 former Cup crew chiefs and 10 crew members doing what our few folks did. She finished 5 places ahead of us in Sunday’s test, and probably spent 20 times what we did for the test. We don’t mind that, as running against good and big teams only makes us work harder and elevate our performance..”