October 23, 2006
Season
Settled in 17-Car Wreck
For her final outing of the 2006 NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour season, Renee returned to
Connecticut’s high-banked, 5/8-mile Thompson
International Speedway.
Drawing third in the qualifying order, the No.
90 team faced an uphill battle going into
qualifying (an early timing position generally
proves to be a disadvantage). With 42 cars on
hand, Dupuis qualified 26th on the
grid. In the final run down, a mere .232 seconds
separated the entire starting field.
From the drop of the green flag, Dupuis kept her
nose clean and worked her way forward. Albeit
brief, the team showed a marked improvement over
recent runs – easily putting in their strongest
showing in the past several events.
Having fought her way past
several cars, gaining positions, Dupuis sat just
outside the top ten at about the lap 50 mark.
The lap following a double-file restart, she
moved to the outside of the No. 75 car - which promptly moved up the
racetrack - touching off an ugly wreck that
collected 17 cars. The incident ended Dupuis’
run – as well as the race - for several top-ranked
teams.
Confounding the situation, one of
the other drivers involved in the incident went
on a rampage of sorts – physically confronting
Dupuis; eventually earning himself a suspension
from NASCAR.
“Plain and simple, we got taken
out,” Renee recently recounted. “To publicly
comment on the situation any further isn’t
really necessary,” she continued.
While only competing in a handful of races
throughout the ‘06 season, the No. 90 team is
hopeful of returning fulltime to the NASCAR WMT
in 2007. “We anticipate the release of next
year’s schedule and getting back to running all
the shows. Believe it or not, it’s almost more
difficult to do this deal on a part-time basis
than it is to run the full schedule,” Renee
reasoned.
We’ll keep you posted here on the website as
the No. 90 team’s plans develop... |
