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Mayfield's Dustin Delaney is in his second season of Camping World Series East competition. With Delaney at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this week, The Leader-Herald sports reporter James A. Ellis accompanied the Delaney Infrastructure/Car?Daddy.com race team for a behind-the-scenes look.

LOUDON, N.H. - The frustration showed on Dustin Delaney's face as he sat quietly in the Delaney Infrastructure/CarDaddy.com No. 39 before sliding out through the left-side window.

The Mayfield racer turned in his Camping World Series East career-best qualifying effort Thursday and started 11th in the field of 29 cars in Friday's Heluva Good! 125.

Delaney ran in the top 10 for a majority of the race before an on-track incident with Patrick Long disrupted his car's handling.

Following the incident, Delaney fell back through the field before recovering after a pit stop to move from 21st to 17th at the checkers.

"It is really sad because we definitely had a top-10 car today, possibly a top five," Delaney said after the race. "He took me from the top of the race track to the bottom and it knocked the toe-in out of adjustment about two inches."

When the crew loaded the car back in the hauler for the five-hour ride back home, it marked the end of one race and the start of getting ready for the next race July 11 at Thompson International Speedway in Thompson, Conn.

Two-week wait

Coming off a solid run on the road course at Watkins Glen two weeks ago, the team's anticipation was high for its return to NHMS, where Delaney turned in his best finish of last year's rookie season -11th.

"He ran good at Loudon last year," crew chief Jamie Aube said. "He has been running good this year and we are looking forward to the weekend."

After two weeks of grinding, tuning and tweaking, the backup and primary cars were loaded into the hauler Tuesday morning for the trek to New Hampshire.

Before the majority of the crew members arrived Thursday, Aube, a three-time series champion, slipped into his driving suit for a preliminary warm-up run around the 1.057-mile track.

Wednesday, the majority of the team members arrived at the speedway along with Dustin Delaney and team-owner Tim Delaney. After getting the motorcoach set up in a camping area overlooking the backstretch, the team members headed for a team dinner and a night of relaxation before the hectic two-day schedule ahead.

Getting ready

The preparation for Thursday's 3:15 p.m. time trial began with the team arriving at the track garage at 6 a.m. to get ready for the 6:30 a.m. safety and mechanical inspection before taking the car to the team's assigned pit box.

While part of the crew stayed with the car as it went through inspection, other members were on pit road preparing the pit stall.

"Teams spend over an hour marking and leveling the scales so they are in the same exact spot every time," crew member Ron "Spot" Ste-Marie said. "That way you get a consistent reading every time. If the scales are not in the same spot every time, you won't get a consistent reading."

The car made its first appearance on pit road and the crew immediately went to work checking the chassis specs and comparing notes from the last trip to Loudon.

"The major setup is done back in the garage before we load the car," Aube said. "When we get here it is just double-checking and tweaking things."

At 8:15 a.m. the race teams rolled their cars down pit road to an infield inspection area where templates were placed over the body of the car to make sure all the cars met the NASCAR series criteria. During the process, the car's wheel-base, width, ride-height and weight, without the driver, were all checked and marked off on the NASCAR provided checklist.

By 9 a.m. the majority of the teams looking for a qualifying spot in Friday's race had cleared tech, were back on pit road and taking a short break to collect their thoughts.

At 9:45 a.m., the activity again began to bustle in the Delaney pit, getting the tires ready for practice and qualifying.

"When the tires are shipped and mounted at first, air is used," crew member Dave Labbe said. "We take the air out and replace it with nitrogen, which is more stable and gives consistency. With air, there is more moisture and it is harder to control the performance."

After firing the engines at 10:45 a.m. for some final tuning, the track was opened at 11:30 a.m. for 90 minutes of practice, the only one the crews were given before qualifying and Friday's 125-lap race.

After turning a dozen laps, Delaney brought the No. 39 to pit road and the tires were removed, temperatures and wear pattern checked before making minor adjustments to the car and heading back to the track for 18 more laps.

During the second session, Aube had the team change the front shocks and made adjustments to the chassis to try to improve on Delaney's best lap of 31.733-seconds, which was 15th fastest on the chart.

The times slowed slightly during the third and fourth runs of the afternoon.

"The car was really tight in the middle of the turns," Delaney said.

While Delaney took in fluids to combat the heat in the car as the temperatures at the track soared in the upper-80s the crew found a loose bolt while checking and adjusting the car's setup.

When Delaney returned to the track, his times came back down, but he still ranked in the lower end of the practice session times.

"The pan-hard bar was loose and kept dropping down," he said of the adjustment made. "The guys tightened it back up and that really helped the way the car handled."

With time running down in the practice session, the crew cooled the engine and put the No. 39 in qualifying trim for the final set of practice laps. The adjustments and hard work showed the team was on course for a solid run.

Delaney recorded his fastest laps of the day and quickly moved up the chart from 25th to seventh fastest with a lap of 31.130 seconds.

"That is incredible," Delaney said. "We usually improve a couple of hundreths of a second, but knocking off almost a half-second is fantastic."

Time trial

The confidence built up by both the team and the driver carried over into the two-lap qualifying run.

After drawing for a spot in time trials, Delaney took to the track at 3:30 p.m. for his qualifying attempt.

Just over a minute later, Delaney's No. 39 flashed up on the infield scoring tower in the fifth spot with his fastest time of 30.964 seconds.

The time kept the Delaney Infrastructure entry in the top-10 until Ryan Truex turned a lap of 30.443 seconds with two drivers left to earn the pole and drop Delaney out of the top 10.

The 11th-place starting spot marked Delaney's career-best qualifying effort in the series.

"That is really good," Aube said of the qualifying run. "Now he will start up front with the good drivers instead of having to battle with the squirrels."

After qualifying, the cars were moved to the side of pit road, covered with tarps and impounded for the night.

"We can't touch the cars until noon Friday," Aube said. "Then we can only warm up the fluids before racing."

The cars also had to start the race on the same tires run in time trials.

With the Whelen asphalt modifieds on the track, the team gathered for a team cookout hosted by Tim and Tina Delaney at their motorcoach.

Race day

Friday, the race teams and fans were greeted by sunny skies until gray clouds blew over the speedway shortly after NASCAR's premier division, the Sprint Cup Series, concluded its first practice session.

The speedway grandstands were cleared as a severe thunderstorm passed near the speedway. After the 90-minute storm passed, officials opted to cancel the Sprint Cup time trials that were slated for 3:10 p.m. The field for today's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 was lined up by points. Series points leader Tony Stewart will start on the pole despite wrecking his primary car in practice. He will run his backup car.

When the rains cleared and blue skies returned, the NHMS track crew got to work using jet dryers to get the racing surface and pit road in shape to run the CWSE Heluva Good! 125.

The time schedule was kept and the order to fire the engines given at 5 p.m. and the green flag dropped on schedule at 5:10 p.m. for the 125-lap race.

Truex and Eddie McDonald battled on the front end for the first half of the race, while Delaney was locked in a battle with Jeff Anton and Alex Kennedy just outside the top 10.

A caution on lap 39 proved beneficial for Delaney as the crew made a slight wedge adjustment and fueled the car to pick up three spots and move Delaney into the top 10.

Delaney took on both right-side tires during a pit stop under caution on lap 65 and returned to the track in 10th. He moved past Jesus Hernandez to ninth and moved to within striking distance of Jody Lavender.

Patrick Long was making his way to the front and moved past Delaney into the top 10. On lap 83, Delaney dove under Long entering turn one. Contact between the drivers between turns one and two damaged the right side of the No. 39, knocking the front end out of alignment.

Delaney struggled with the car, dropping as far back as 21st and was about to be lapped by leader and eventual race winner, Matt DiBenedetto when the caution flew with 20 laps remaining, keeping Delaney on the lead lap.

A series of late-race cautions helped Delaney make progress back up the standings to finish 17th.

"Everybody did good today. Except for one incident on the track, we were on our game today," Delaney said. "It is disappointing."