4th Place East Points Finish a milestone for Female racers
Harrisburg, NC, September 16, 2022 – Despite a rough outing, Stephanie Moyer was able to accomplish what she needed to on Thursday. She survived the Bristol High Banks long enough to have a historic points finish in the East Series.
History Made
When the Checkered Flag fell upon Bristol Thursday night, and East Series Champion Sammy Smith performed his victory burnouts on the front stretch, a smaller, albeit subdued celebration occurred in the Fast Track Racing garage.
A battered, mangled and broken #01 Toyota Camry sat at the gate of a single car trailer, behind a pickup truck. Nothing could be more symbolic for the underdog driver and team that never gave up throughout the 2022 season.
“I’m so stoked with the points finish! But man, I hate it for the crew that the car is all tore up.” Said Moyer, ever the competitor. “We’ve worked so hard with so little and this just means so much to me, my family, and hopefully women everywhere!”
“I’ve gotta thank all the small businesses that helped make this happen for us all year long! Evergreen Raceway, Harry’s U Pull It, Fairway Subaru, and not to mention the crowd funding effort by my fans who helped keep the wheels on this thing!”
Stephanie’s 4th place finish marks the highest team owner Andy Hillenburg has had from a driver since his Championship in 1995.
Bristol Recap
The race day began with practice in the afternoon, where Moyer lead her team on the speed charts. The team quickly found a problem though with the transmission having a vibration at speed. The team quickly replaced the ailing part.
Averaging 112.725 MPH around the world’s fastest half Mile, the team only had time to make one run and adjusted the car for better race pace.
Qualifying was a group session, in which multiple cars are on track at once. A poor slot early in the session unfortunately relegated her to a 25th place starting position for that nights race.
With race prep now complete, there was only one goal left; finish ahead of the 48 car of Brad Smith.
Despite having a faster car than Brad all year long, the fact remains that at Bristol, anything can happen, and often quickly. Moyer fought her way forward In the first segment of the race from her 25th place start to fighting just inside the top 20, losing only 2 laps in the process.
A Heartbreaking End to the Day
With a handful of laps left to go before the 2nd scheduled race break, trouble occurred in turn 3. Stephanie and the 17 of Taylor Gray got together, sending both drivers for a spin through turn 4.
Gray was able to escape unharmed, but Stephanie unfortunately did not. “Up until then, It felt great out there, just got tagged and Christian had nowhere to go over in 3. We’ve both had such bad luck this year with mechanical issues and accidents”
The car was mangled beyond repair and was overheating badly. With no choice left but to retire the car, the attention turned to Brad who was also pulled off track with an engine issue. Brad never returned, and locked up Stephanie’s points finish.
What’s Next?
Stephanie has no further races on her schedule this season, and is looking forward to what the future may bring.
“We don’t have anything lined up for next year yet, but we are going to take the offseason to see what we can come up with for 2023. At the end of the day, racing is a business, and we don’t have any sponsors for next year yet.” Said Moyer.
“I’d love to run some more Elite series races if I can. This was so much fun to accomplish this year, but a, but we will see I just hope that I proved myself this season!”
