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With the Gremlins of Knoxville looming, Team Crown Racing and Jody Rosenboom were looking to familiar territory and the Jackson Nationals to return to form.

Night one of racing action would pit the #27 in the strongest heat of the night and a 6th starting position. “We had a decent start there, but it got to where we were four wide entering turn 1 and it was almost a situation where I kinda closed my eyes and prayed for the best and it worked out”, said Jody. Starting 6th in the feature, Jody quickly made his way up to 3rd, and eventually faded back to 6th for his final spot. “Our motor just wouldn’t run like it should”, team owner Jason Johnson says. “Jody did a heck of a job driving and I knew with the late cautions and the cars that were starting to get up there that we were a sitting duck. For the way that motor ran, we were lucky to stay in 6th at the end.”

Saturday would bring a new night and new hope. Jason Johnson sums the evening up: “We busted our tails in the shop all day Saturday to try and diagnose and fix whatever problem we had with the engine along with all of the other regular maintenance that goes along with the car. We finally got that thing to run good again which was a pretty big relief for me again. We had an awesome heat race there with Scott Winters which fortunately we came out on top of and had a great starting spot for the feature which was 4th. After that, we were fairly loose, but Jody could lean on the cushion and make up for quite a bit of that. He really did a heck of a job holding off charges by some excellent drivers on a few restarts there and once we could get in the clear and run we really felt like they weren’t a challenge to us. About 3 laps before our tire blew I could see the car was acting differently. It was getting really tight and you could see it rolling clear over on the right rear tire. Those guys took advantage of that pretty quickly and then BAM! A blown right rear tire killed our night! I’m certain we were at least a top 5 car and possibly could have been in the top 3, who knows though….there were a bunch of really good cars all right there that were all about the same speed so it would have depended on how traffic played out. In the end it wasn’t the finish we liked, but it was a good night.”

Team Crown would like everyone to keep Steve Henderscheidt in their prayers. Steve has been hospitalized for about a month with pancreas problems.

“It was a struggle most of the night, which turned good and ended with a struggle” is what team owner Jason Johnson had to say.

“We just didn’t have the engine tuned very well at the beginning of the night and that really got us behind the 8 ball so to speak. We backed up in the heat in which we should have run 2nd or so, and when you have to start 16th in a field, it makes it tough on you. We did a few things setup wise that we normally wouldn’t do or try and the car really responded well to what we did. Jody was really pleased with how it drove for him, so even though we ended up with a 14th place finish we learned a lot. It’s too bad that we had to try to get that far to the front where we were running in 4th there at the end. Jody got a bad run there on the last lap and the 54 car got under us. He did the right thing trying to turn back under him in 3 and 4, but Dobesh worked the corner well and pinched him so he couldn’t pass him back which in turn caused Jody to spin out. He was just trying hard and made a mistake. It’s racing and it happens every night to someone. We’re still pretty pleased with how it went though.”

The Knoxville 360 Nationals are fast approaching and the #27 Team Crown car will once again try their luck. “We haven’t really had much of any luck down there in the past. We’re going with the idea of working hard to make the A main, but it’s just a great week and atmosphere all together that even if we don’t have luck again it will be a fun experience for us. Let’s hope luck turns our way down there and we get a good run going!”

Team Crown entered the week with hopes of running well in two shows. They delivered a top 5 and a top 10 running with some of the best in the area and the country!

Thursday July 8th Redwood Speedway hosted the JSTS races for the first time. Team Crown and driver Jody Rosenboom were able to make the first a good one. “Any time we go to a track where they don’t normally race our class, and a lot of the other drivers don’t race there, we feel it’s to our advantage”, says Jason. “I’ve been fortunate over all the years of my involvement to have raced at a lot of different tracks with good drivers and learned so much from those times. Jody is the same. He’s been to so many different tracks in his career, and he adapts pretty well in most cases. We just feel like we hold our own destiny a lot of times at shows like that with many of the others only racing a few tracks over most of their careers.” With a poor draw, Jody would have to make up ground in the heat race to have a good starting spot in the feature. By heats end, he would wind up 3rd which would give them a 3rd place starting spot in the A feature. Quickly moving to 2nd place, Jody was unable to catch the leader and would settle for a 2nd place finish for the night. “The motor kept getting hot all night as we’d get laps on it. I felt like I could run pretty decent until it would lose some of it’s power when the temps rose over 220. Anytime you run 2nd to a guy like Tony Bruce, you can’t hang your head about that. I’m happy with the result!” states Jody.

Saturday would bring in the professionals and the ASCS National series to I90 Speedway in Hartford, SD. “I learned to race at this track, and I feel pretty comfortable that we can run with anyone over here.” Jody says. “We got lucky with the draw and with some bad luck for the guy starting on the pole, we were able to move up and start from his position which is what we needed. I knew if I could just lead the first lap, we could win the heat race and move directly to the feature which is huge. Luckily everything worked out for us and we were able to achieve the transfer spot.” A 10th place start and a pass here and there either forward or backward is what the team would see for 11 of the scheduled 30 laps that were completed. Jason says, “We were about like most of the field out there. If you had the good line through the corner, you could pass if you were in position, but if you were in a different part of the track trying to find a line around someone, you were in jeopardy of being passed yourself. We weren’t good, but we weren’t bad either. We’ll take an 8th place finish with the best in the business.” In the end, Mother Nature won out and claimed the final 19 laps of the race.

Team Crown had a successful weekend in all and looks to the coming weeks and races to build on their results!