“It just breaks your heart to run up front all night and into the morning, and then to have something like this happen - it just kills me,” Frisselle grimaced, “This is a fickle race, and I just hate it for Mike Shank and all the guys on this team because they work so hard and should be rewarded with a good result in this race. My co-drivers did awesome jobs and we were ready to go to the finish and fight for a win, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be our day today.”

The mechanical issue proved to be the bellhousing, which is a key component of the full rear structure. Once again, however, a setback that would have sent most teams packing for home merely became a rallying point for the squad, which got the car back on track and into the top ten for the finish - and earned praise from occasional racer Allmendinger.

“Both these Mike Shank teams will win races this year,” the NASCAR convert predicted, “It was great to have a car that had no problem getting to the front, and this [mechanical problem] was the only thing that was going to slow us down. Burt drove a great stint and I'm really disappointed for Ian and John [Pew] that we couldn't get them more points in the championship. I was ready to fight for the lead to the finish and I know we had the car to do it - unfortunately, today just wasn't our day.”

“I guess I should be happy with both these cars making it to the finish and being in the top ten and scoring some decent points to start the championship off but, of course, you never are unless you are spraying champagne,” Shank concluded, “I'm grateful to come away with the points that we do for sixth and ninth, but we were really here for new watches.”