BRISTOL, Tenn. – Spencer Davis came within 13 laps and a bump-and-run of snapping a three-year dry spell in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East on Thursday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Davis, who inherited the lead almost right from the get-go after contact between Sam Mayer and Chase Cabre in turn three on the opening lap relegated them to the tail of the field, led the first 137 laps of the Bush’s Beans 150 before Mayer got back in contention and doled out another bumper shot.
A thump to the back of Davis’ No. 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford entering turn three on the 138th round shot the Georgia native up the track, relegating him backward as Mayer raced past and on to victory.
Meanwhile, Davis quickly faded out of the picture, after staying out at the second stage break at lap 100 and having to nurse old General Tires to the finish with a car that was starting to lose the handle.
It all added up to a disappointing end for Davis, who came into the afternoon with a lot of optimism.
“It was just tires, man. We were probably burning the right front off,” admitted Davis when asked what cost him the win. “Once he got to within a half a car (length), I started playing defense. When he’d connect to my rear bumper, I’d drag through the corner and try to keep him pushing me so I could keep my momentum up. I didn’t want to lock up the fronts and let him just push me out of the way.
“I held on as long as I could. He was just better when it counted.”
As Davis’ rubber wore out, the handling of his car got progressively worse, eventually leading Mayer to utilize one of the standard tools in the short-track racing arsenal for making passes.
“We just weren’t as good as the 21 (Mayer),” said Davis. “He stayed turning longer than we did; we were just a little bit tight. We were better than the 17 (Gibbs) and the 24 (Diaz), but Sam’s been on rails all year long. … You expect that kind of a move from him, and you expect it at Bristol. That’s what this place is famous for, is last-lap bump and runs when it gets down to the end.
“He did what he had to do. Heck, I probably would have done the same thing. It’s just bittersweet to say that’s how you’re supposed to race here,” he continued. “I don’t think he could have passed us clean, but you know coming to most short tracks that there’ll be contact when guys are hungry for wins.”
One of the stark differences between Davis’ No. 30 squad and the race-winning No. 21 team that Mayer drives for comes from a funding standpoint, something Davis tried to upend the script on this weekend.
“Those GMS guys, they have a real big budget and we run on a tight budget,” Davis pointed out. “We just can’t go willy-nilly with our stuff, but we do the best we can with what we have.
“This group isn’t made up of a lot of guys, but we’ve all worked hard and we wanted this one today.”
Davis’ lone K&N East victory came on May 30, 2016 at Virginia’s Dominion Raceway, when he bested Justin Haley for the race win at the four-tenths-mile paved oval in a thrilling photo finish.
Thursday night, Davis thought he might finally be able to shake off a season’s worth of bad luck and “finally get some more victory lane photos taken,” but it just didn’t happen on this particular night.
“I was just as hungry as he (Mayer) was,” noted Davis. “It’s been a long time since I’ve won, so I wanted it bad, but he just had the upper hand today. It’s been a little bit rough for us; not the picture-perfect season, by any stretch of the imagination. After the momentum I built last year with Danny Watts (Racing), I had real high hopes coming over here to Rette Jones, and it’s just not been what we hoped.
“The scales finally started to turn around after my truck race at Kentucky (Speedway). We had a real good run in that one and we’ve been putting in a lot of hours in the shop to try and find speed,” he added. “It’s not from a lack of effort that we haven’t been winning these things. We took our short-track car to the biggest short track there is and led more than 100 laps with it, so it’s not all bad.
“Everyone knew we were here; that’s better than the first half of the year.”