Grant Enfinger’s Driver Blog
When the opportunity presented itself to have ARCA RE/MAX Series driver Grant Enfinger come on board and blog for us we jumped at the opportunity. We had the pleasure of meeting Grant last October at Talladega and were impressed at how passionate and determined he is to make this dream a reality. He is truly a throwback to the days of Bobby Allison, Red Farmer, Buddy Baker, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough.
You see not only is he the driver of the #83 Ford Fusion in the ARCA/REMAX Series…he is the owner, car chief, hauler driver, and the “guys back at the shop.” It’s why we believe his insight, stories and behind-the-scenes access will be a welcome addition to the site.
October 24, 2009:
Headed down to Helena, MS to crew chief for BRG Motorsports with their Pro Late Model at Mobile International Speedway where Josh Bragg won his division and finish 9th overall.
October 26-29, 2009:
Worked the “night shift” at the BRG Motorsports shop on the Super Late Model that I will drive at the Snowball Derby on December 6th.
October 30-31, 2009:
Today, headed to Talladega on my way back to North Carolina. Once I get back to North Carolina it is time to relax a little as well as take every opportunity to shake hands and find a little more direction for next season.
Back to work at the Grant Enfinger Racing shop in Concord. Even though our own plans are vague for the upcoming season, we are very busy preparing the car for the Daytona test in mid-December. The car we are bring to the test is the same car we ran 3rd at Talladega with.
December 7, 2009:
I arrived back at the Concord, NC shop after a disappointing result at the Snowball Derby. Not because of the 6th place finish, but because we were unable to get the car good enough to be in contention to win the biggest late model race in the country. Now, it’s time to focus on Daytona and the ARCA open test next week. It will be a long night, because I have scheduled a day at Ford’s K-Rig tomorrow and the car is not ready for that.
December 8, 2009:
Worked late yesterday and I was able to get some, but not all, of the prep work done for the K-Rig. For those of you not familiar with what a K-Rig does, it basically pulls the car up and down so that we can make changes to see what affect it has. Luckily, Joe Shuryan, who runs the K-Rig stayed a couple hours late so I can try a few extra adjustments to get an idea of what we will try at the Daytona open test.
December 10, 2009:
A standard working day for me, but I have to go meet with Rick Crawford to ask advice on something. Still a bit undecided about that decision but Rick is the first place I go when I have a question like that.
December 14, 2009:
The ARCA test is bringing tons of excitement around the shop here at GER. I, like many other small independent ARCA teams, have spent the last week or so making adjustments to our superspeedway car. We have not race at a superspeedway since last April at Talladega. The last time I raced this particular car, the No. 83 BeasleyAllen.com superspeedway machine produced an 8th place qualifying effort and a 3rd place finish.
I had to do a lot of small tasks and complete a few thing this morning before RoushYates engine tuner, Nick Ramey, came to fire the engine up after lunch. After that, I tried to get some of the tedious fabrication work done before Tom Bear (my crew chief) came by after his regular job to lend a hand and some much needed direction.
Unlike those other top running teams, I am working on the car by myself. I will drive the hauler to Daytona this Thursday as well as act as the team’s car chief. I expect to have a couple of crew members help me at the track during the open test. Tom (Bear) will serve as crew chief and Jeremy Lundy will be my spotter. I am counting on Jeremy to spot from atop the press box of the famous speedway, buy my dad may have to substitute for Jeremy on Friday during single car runs. No offense to my dad but I NEED Jeremy on Saturday when we do some drafting. As much as I love my father, Floyd, I don’t trust him on the radio while running 170 mph + inches apart from cars in front, in back on the sides.
December 18, 2009:
(2:30 pm) Rain has let up for a little while. We’ve been able to shake the car down and everything seems fine for now.
**Note: Friday’s practice session was plagued, and eventually cut short, by rain. Teams got about 35 minutes worth of practice in before the rain returned. Of the 25 cars that took time, Grant managed to log the 9th and 14th fastest time respectively.
(5:36 pm) Rained out the rest of practice, so we will try again tomorrow.
December 19, 2009:
(9:40 am) Made our first “real” run. The car seems good, but it is still hitting the track a little.
(5:43 pm) We just finished for the day with our fastest time of the test. We seem to be alright but we are going to try to get a little more speed in the morning.
December 21, 2009:
After the team got home from the successful three day test at Daytona International Speedway Sunday night, it was back to the Chassis dyno on Monday – to see how the engine held up during the test. The engine seemed fine, but we discovered a driveline issue that was causing excessive drag.
December 22, 2009:
I received the transmission and gears out of the car – then back to EMCO gears for inspection – to find out if the gears could be causing the drag. Also took the hubs apart to inspect for anything that could be causing the problems before heading back home to Alabama for the Holidays.
January 3, 2010:
Vacations over, and it is once again back to the daily grind. Even though it is four weeks before we head to Daytona – I’m starting to get pushed and stressed for time. Tom Bear, Crew Chief, and I want to build some suspension components to test before race day, and we are still searching for the driveline issue.
January 6, 2010:
Today, I went to see Rick Crawford because I always like to drop by when I’m around his shop – he always has great advice. This time, I spent a while talking to Gator (Circle Bars driveline guru) about our continuing drag issue and he pointed me in a new direction and was a huge help. I left the shop a little early tonight because I was meeting some friends to watch the BCS National Championship Game. Roll Tide!
January 11, 2010:
Had a very busy weekend between working in the shop and going to Lanier, a short track near Atlanta, on Friday to help Brett and David Ragan on their new late model. They are always helping me out – so I’m glad I can help them a little with this. Managed to clean out the oiling system, changing steering boxes, and started going through the brakes. We are getting close to having our official schedule for the races we plan on making in 2010.
January 16, 2010:
Tom Bear, Crew Chief, and I are having another late night at the Grant Enfinger Racing shop. The upcoming week is going to be busy. We have a lot of fresh ideas for the problems with the car that we need to put into action before we go to the pull down rig on Wednesday and the chassis dyno on Thursday.
January 19, 2010:
Another late night at the shop. Finally finished mocking up everything we want to try on the rear suspension. We feel like to make our biggest gains in speed at Daytona we need to focus on some thing more, but with all the rules ARCA enforces it is difficult.
January 20, 2010:
This marks the most rewarding work day I have had in a while. The ideas Tom Bear had worked and we now feel like we should be in much better shape for the race.
January 21, 2010:
After going through and checking every component that could cause drag in the driveline of the car it is now time to take it back to the RoushYates dyno in Mooresville, NC. The dyno run practically equaled the run we made following the ARCA test in December. This is very frustrating because everything has been checked and rechecked. I’m definitely not satisfied and we will have to come back to dyno the same car and engine for a fourth time because it has to be right.
January 23, 2010:
I only worked about a half day because my parents Floyd and Linda came in town to check on things and help stock the trailer for the upcoming race – and visit for my birthday.
January 25, 2010:
Starting to prep the car for a wrap that CGS Imaging has helped us out with. With the exception of our prolonging chassis dyno problem we don’t have any more major projects before we head to Daytona a week from today.
February 4th, 2010:
Busy day. We are in the middle of a five hour practice session. We had an issue with the radiator leaking, but got it squared away.
We are also having some trouble with the clutch in 2nd gear. Other than that the car is decent. It’s traveling better than what it did back at the open test.
February 5th, 2010:
Getting ready to roll out for qualifying.
Would love to land somewhere in the Top 10.
