UNITED STATESPrimary navigation | back to top
News and Media Releases
Gifford Sidelined by Fuel Shortage
12/07/2009
Team Dillon Racing driver Ryan Gifford and his No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet fell victim to an empty fuel cell in Saturday’s Dwight Huffman Memorial race at Hickory Motor Speedway.
We raced hard all night and were doing pretty well. We got caught up in a couple of cautions, but you expect that on a track that small, especially with that many cars all trying to gain spots.
After Gifford ran out of fuel with around 15 laps remaining in the marathon 177-lap event, the TDR team knew it would take several laps to get the car fueled and the engine restarted. With so few laps remaining to make up the lost track position, the team elected to call it a night and Gifford was credited with a 15th-place finish.
After qualifying 12th, the Winchester, Tenn. native and his TDR team settled in for what would turn out to be a three-plus hour event, totaling some 13 caution periods and 177 circuits around the .363-mile bullring.
Gifford did his best to bide his time during the first segment of 150 laps, content to try and save his equipment for the 27-lap dash to the end that would decide the winner. In typical short track fashion, the race was characterized by tons of side-by-side racing, and more than its fair share of beating and banging among the 34 competitors that made up the field.
With less than 10 laps remaining in the first segment, Gifford and Dennis Setzer made contact, sending both drivers spinning out to bring out the ninth caution flag of the night. As the second segment got underway, Gifford, Setzer and Charles Lewis bunched up on the restart, which caused the caution flag to be displayed for the 10th time.
Midway through the 27-lap segment, Gifford ran out of fuel. On the tight confines of HMS, it didn't take long for Gifford to lose several laps to the leaders as his car slowly made its way around the track.
Given there were only a handful of laps remaining at that point and little to be gained by returning to the race, the team instead chose to bring Gifford to the pit area.
Gifford was shown 15th in the final rundown, while his TDR teammate, Ty Dillon, finished just ahead of him in 14th.
The race was won by Matt McCall, who claimed a payday of just over $14,000 dollars.
Gifford is taking a few days off to visit his family in Tennessee before returning to the TDR shops in Welcome, N.C. While the team will not field a car for the 20 year-old this weekend, they are in the midst of preparing for an upcoming event at Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, N.C.
Ryan Gifford Quote: "We raced hard all night and were doing pretty well. We got caught up in a couple of cautions, but you expect that on a track that small, especially with that many cars all trying to gain spots. I don't know what happened on the fuel. The fuel pick-up must not have been getting everything out of the tank. It was a disappointing way to finish, but weird stuff is going to happen sometimes. We'll take what we learned this weekend and move forward."