Danny Rowe turned a bad situation into a good one in St. Louis. (Roger Richards)
Any realistic chance Danny Rowe had of winning the 2008 JEGS ProMod
Challenge title could have been lost Friday night in St. Louis when his
Hottinger Group Camaro got away from him and impacted both of Gateway
International Raceway's retaining walls. But instead of giving up, Rowe
and crew chief Jimmy Rector scrambled to find a solution.
By Saturday afternoon's final qualifying session, an exhaustive
all-night effort yielded a fourth-best 5.987 at 241.02 mph in a car
they had borrowed from fellow competitor Mike Ashley. By the end of the
race, Rowe had racked up another semifinal finish and 75 championship
points, lifting him to fourth in the rankings and just 74 markers back
of the lead.
"I feel very, very lucky," Rowe said. "First, that I didn't get hurt. I
mean, I was going 190 mph when I hit the wall and I hit hard. Second,
that my family, who was there, supported my decision to race the next
day because they were all pretty wigged out at first. And finally, that
I have such a talented team that we were able to pull it off."