SPARTA, KY. (June 19) – Blake Feese and the No. 5 Lowe’s team posted a 34th-place finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Kentucky Speedway.

On a day that saw the Busch Series competitors practice, qualify and drive a 300-mile race in just over 12 hours, what would have been a long day under the best of circumstances turned into an even longer night for Feese and his Hendrick Motorsports crew.

First, a crash during Feese’s qualifying run late Saturday afternoon sent the Lowe’s team scrambling to get its backup car prepared for the start of the event.

The team’s hard luck didn’t end there, as Feese made contact with the outside retaining wall on lap 74 of the race, damaging the steering on the No. 5 Lowe’s / Hitachi Power Tools Chevy.

After multiple trips to pit road to let his crew troubleshoot the problem, Feese finally went behind the wall for repairs.

Feese eventually returned to the race, many laps down to the race leaders.

“We had a bad day,” Feese said. “The car just snapped around me in qualifying. I knew the car was loose, but I thought it would stick better than that. I was trying to get as good a qualifying spot as I could and I just hung it out there a little too much.

“I don’t know what happened on that restart when I hit the wall. I went off into the corner and the car just wouldn’t turn. It just took off and headed straight for the wall. I wish I knew what caused it.”

“I can’t say enough about all the hard work the team did today. Everyone jumped in and worked their tails off to get the backup car ready. I can’t thank them enough for all they did. I’m just sorry we weren’t able to give them a better finish.”

The accident during qualifying actually happened on Feese’s second timed lap. While his first lap time was good enough to give Feese the 17th starting spot, going to the backup car meant he and the Lowe’s Chevy started the race at the rear of the field.

Feese worked his way up to 35th position by the time the first caution flag came out on lap 12. Crew chief Jim Long told Feese to come to pit road under the caution for chassis and tire pressure adjustments to fix a loose handling condition on the No. 5 machine.

When the next caution flag came out on lap 20, a number of other drivers came to pit road, moving Feese up to 25th position for the lap 26 restart.

Feese stayed in the top-25 before pitting again on lap 42 for new tires and more chassis adjustments to fix a tight handling condition on his Chevy. Feese’s Hendrick Motorsports pit crew performed a stellar pit stop, sending Feese back out in 18th position for the lap 45 restart.

Unfortunately, the chassis adjustments worked a little too well, and Feese found himself dealing with a very loose handling condition. The loose condition dropped Feese back as far as 30th position before the caution flag came out for an accident on lap 71.

Feese brought his car to the attention of his pit crew, where they made more chassis and tire pressure adjustments, returning Feese to the track in 27th position for the lap 74 restart.

When the green flag was displayed, Feese found that his car would not turn getting into the corner, and he “flat-sided” the right side of his machine when he made contact with the outside retaining wall.

After pitting to let his crew assess the damage, Feese said the No. 5 machine was not steering properly. Feese came back in to let his crew check the car’s front end alignment. When the problem persisted, Long told his driver to come back in. Members of the Hendrick crew went underneath the car to see if they could discover the source of the steering issue, but were unable to pinpoint the problem.

Eventually, the decision was made to bring the No. 5 behind the wall. There, the Lowe’s crew spent the next 30 laps assessing and repairing the problem before sending Feese back out in 35th position, 43 laps down to the race leaders. From there, Feese made laps to get more experience and gain valuable Busch Series owners’ points.

With the finish, team owner Rick Hendrick now holds the 17th spot in the NASCAR Busch Series owners’ points standings.

Next up for the No. 5 crew is a visit to The Milwaukee Mile at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. Kyle Krisiloff, another young Hendrick driver, will make his Busch Series debut behind the wheel of the No. 5 Lowe’s / Briggs & Stratton Chevy next weekend at “The Mile”.

The 250-mile Busch Series race will air live from The Milwaukee Mile on Saturday, June 25, beginning at 7:30 p.m. EDT, on FX and MRN Radio affiliates.