Part 2 of our Zero To 60TV NASCAR special on Timmy Hill and the #66 Toyota Camry.

 

“Find your line and FOCUS.” That was the well-seasoned advice given to NASCAR driver Timmy Hill in the Xfinity Series Garage at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hill was preparing to race in the Drive for the Cure 200 September 29th at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s new “Roval.” Timmy’s advice came from one of NASCAR’s old-school heritage drivers, Gene Hobby, who drove in the Grand National Series in the mid-1960s. Gene was a guest of honor for LeithCars.com, the primary sponsor of one of NASCAR’s most followed underdog teams, MBM Motorsports, and the #66 Toyota.

 

Keeping his focus wouldn’t be Timmy’s concern on this day, but finding his line at the first-ever “Roval,” (road course + oval) might be. Timmy and his Xfinity Series competition would get the first crack at this new, extraordinarily tricky course, one day ahead of their Monster Energy Cup Series counterparts. Several drivers in both series had already crashed their race cars in practice or qualifying laps at the Roval. Timmy Hill wanted to take advantage of his team’s strong, 24th qualifying position by “keeping all the fenders on the car” as he said during an interview for Zero To 60TV. That way, they could make a late charge to the finish.

The #66 LeithCars.com Toyota in action 9-29-18 at Charlotte. (Photo credits: Adam Gilliland and Brandon Wright).

                                                                                                   

 

Expecting attrition to claim a few of the cars in the race-maybe even a playoff contender or two-seemed to be a logical plan. The #66 Toyota was a strong car, possibly one of the best-equipped race cars Timmy had driven for MBM Motorsports at this point in the season.  Unfortunately, that late race charge would never come. The LeithCars.com Toyota Camry moved up quickly in the field of 40 cars during the first stage of the Roval, running as high as 19th place. But for Hill and his bright blue and white striped Toyota, a bit of bad luck involving a radio mix-up and overheating brakes resulted in a disappointing finish.

Hill’s NASCAR Xfinity Series car develops a brake issue (L). Inside the #66 with a mislabeled brake fan switch (R).

 

We were told after the race by the car’s owner, Carl Long, that the #66 Toyota suffered from a cascading series of failures, each of which caused Timmy’s car to fade back in the field. Overheating brakes led to the use of a brake fan, mislabeled on the car’s instrument panel. When Timmy thought he was turning on the brake fan, he was actually turning on the “rear window brake light” (used only on a road course under rainy conditions).  Timmy’s unintentional use of the brake light instead of the brake fan, led to NASCAR track officials telling Carl that his driver would be “black flagged” if he kept turning on his brake light.

 

Frustrated over the inability to cool his brakes, and issues between his helmet radio and pit crew communications, Hill had to pull the #66 into the garage so the team could figure out what was wrong. The setback caused Timmy to fall at least four laps down, eventually relegating him to a 32nd place finish.

For us though, an underdog team that keeps fighting to make the field each weekend to compete against much bigger, multi-million dollar backed teams and still take care of their fans-is something to be celebrated.

From LeithCars.com and Zero To 60TV, here’s to a successful 2019 race season and hoping Gene Hobby’s advice might help somewhere along the way. “You got to find your line and FOCUS!”

 

Written by Mark Arsen for LeithCars.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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