Marc Mitchell seemed to have a top-five finish in the bag in Friday night’s N.C. Education Lottery 200 at the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway located in Concord, North Carolina.  Unfortunately, a vibration coming from the right-front tire dashed his hopes for a solid run.  The culprit, a loose wheel, forced the Ergon Toyota to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 82, which put Mitchell two laps down to the leaders.  Although the team had one of the fastest trucks in the field, Mitchell didn’t have time to recover from the deficit and finished in 24th place.

Mitchell qualified the Ergon Toyota in the 11th position.  He hung strong in the top-15 until the first caution waved, lap 21. Crew chief Doug George called Mitchell into the pits for a gas-only stop and sent him back on the track in the 11th position.  Green flag action resumed on lap 28.  Mitchell climbed into the top-10 on lap 30 and was continuously running lap times consistent with the leaders.  He pedaled the Ergon Tundra into the eighth position before relinquishing the spot for a green flag pit stop on lap 79.  The No. 15 Toyota was “handling awesome” according to Mitchell, so the crew serviced his truck with four fresh tires, fuel and no adjustments.  On lap 81, the team’s luck took a turn for the worse.  As soon as Mitchell rejoined the field, he reported “a bad vibration coming from the right-front.”  The vibration started on the frontstretch and continued all the way around the track.  Mitchell knew he had no choice but to make a return trip down pit lane to change the tires.  The unscheduled pit stop relegated Mitchell two laps down to the leaders.

The Ergon Toyota remained one of the fastest trucks in the field, but was unable to get back on the lead lap.  Mitchell settled for a 24th place finish.

“Great truck, disappointing finish,” said Mitchell after the event.  “We had a top-five truck tonight.  The Ergon Toyota was flying.  The ‘88’ truck won the race tonight, and we were ahead of him for most of the race.  I don’t know what the vibration was.  It could have been a loose wheel, or an unbalanced wheel, but it was making the whole front shake.  I didn’t want to put the truck in the wall, so I had no choice but to pit for tires.  I hated to give up our track position.  I know we could have been battling for the win. The good news is that we’ll be taking this truck to Texas in a couple of weeks and I think that we’ll have an awesome run there.”