{"id":8163,"date":"2020-05-05T08:35:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T12:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonmotorsport.com\/?p=8163"},"modified":"2020-05-05T08:35:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T12:35:45","slug":"bobby-mincer-2020-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2020\/05\/05\/bobby-mincer-2020-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Mincer starts off ’20 with new ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

The end-of-year banquet that takes place at Knoxville Raceway after every season of racing is a night where the track hands out cash and contingency prizes to its drivers after a hard fought season.<\/p>\n

For some teams, it\u2019s an extra couple of parts they can use to upgrade their car here and there.<\/p>\n

However, for Bobby Mincer<\/strong>, the Maxim Chassis that he and his team took home confirmed a move they\u2019ve been wanting to make hoping it will pay off in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been contemplating going back to Maxim before,\u201d Mincer said. \u201cWe were lucky enough to be drawn for the Maxim Chassis Kit. That was huge for us. It\u2019s a big deal for a small team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobby Mincer starts off ’20 with new ride<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The move comes after three years of racing a Triple X chassis and will be a part of a complete transition to Maxim parts on the car.<\/p>\n

The change had crew chief Dennis Gainey <\/strong>just as excited for the 2020 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the big thing,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cMaxim has supplied race parts to some of the best race cars out there. I\u2019m excited to get my hands on it and see what we can do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team is also switching to Factory Kahne shocks to suit the feel of Mincer a little bit more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on FK\u2019s a couple years ago,\u201d Mincer said. \u201cI felt like I just felt good in the car with FK\u2019s. Just a couple of small, little things. A lot of the times it\u2019s in the drivers head too. If you\u2019re comfortable with something and you make a change where you don\u2019t feel comfortable after making a change, you always think, \u2018well I was good on these\u2026 So, that\u2019s part of it too, I just felt good on FK\u2019s and wanted to go back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chassis kit and the shocks, of course, doesn\u2019t yield a completed race car.<\/p>\n

Mincer and Gainey bought an ex-Joey Saldana <\/strong>Rudeen Motorsports car from Indy Race Parts over the off-season, one that they think could improve their speed tremendously.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean it will all come together right off of the bat, though.<\/p>\n

When the World of Outlaws come to town on Friday night, there will be some trial and error to figuring out the new setup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some things to figure out,\u201d Mincer said. \u201cBut, what better time than now. You know, you get to race with the World of Outlaws, also. I\u2019m just going to go into it with the attitude of trying to do the best we can and having fun doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bobby
Bobby Mincer ‘s 2020 paint scheme – designed by Dennis Gainey Racing Designs – is modeled here on an iRacing render. Photo courtesy Bobby Mincer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The series returns to the track on Friday for its first race back since the COVID-19 cancellations started.<\/p>\n

Along with the full time Outlaws entries, the top 20 finishers in the Knoxville points standings from 2019 qualified for the event, giving Mincer a spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool that I was on the list as one of the participants that could run it,\u201d Mincer said. \u201cFor our small team, it\u2019s pretty neat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The race is being tabbed as the World of Outlaws Invitational presented by McKay Group with Nationwide Insurance.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to the two sponsors as well as the series, the event will pay a full World of Outlaws-level purse of $10,000-to-win. That includes $800 to start in the A-Main of the event.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s quite the achievement, as no fans will be in attendance per state guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will feel a little bit different,\u201d Mincer said. \u201cFor me, having our friends and family in the stands to watch what we do, is a big part of what we do. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s like that for a lot of guys, but I think when you\u2019re in the car racing in the heat of the moment, I think it will be like another normal night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crews at Knoxville will be limited to one driver and four crew members, which might cause problems for some big teams.<\/p>\n

However, for the No. 15 car, it will be the fans that are missing, instead of the crew for the small team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the race team that we are, the reason we do it is for our family and our friends to see us at the racetrack and all of the camaraderie that comes with it,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cI think doing it with no fans takes a little bit out of it, but I\u2019m excited to at least get on the racetrack, because who knows, this might be our only opportunity to race this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just another obstacle that the global pandemic has put to teams.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby
Bobby Mincer announced his alternate paint scheme for the 2019 NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals. Photo courtesy Bobby Mincer Racing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It will be a tougher field than normal on Friday with the Outlaws being in town, but it could be something that Mincer\u2019s team goes up against weekly.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything with COVID-19 has changed a lot of the thought process on what I feel our goals are,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cOriginally, my goal for us was to run in the top 10 in points at Knoxville this year, and I think we\u2019re very capable of doing that. Another goal was to make every 410-weekly feature, and I think we\u2019re very capable of that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team only failed to start in one feature race during the 2019 season and finished 16th<\/sup> in the series points standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only caveat to that is with COVID-19 and depending on which racetracks are being re-opened, I think we\u2019re going to see an influx of very good, quality cars, because there\u2019s nowhere else to race,\u201d Gainey said.<\/p>\n

Gainey added that that might temper the team\u2019s goals, just a bit, as they face off against tougher competition.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the way things go in a team like this one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t race enough to be as competitive as we should be,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cEven the guys on top of the local shows are racing two-three times a week. We\u2019re weekend racers. We have full-time careers. It\u2019s basically just us. It makes it harder for us to get out and run even on Friday nights, because we have to take off work. We don\u2019t get the opportunities to be as sharp as we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although, the show will always go on, and the main goal will still be at the forefront.<\/p>\n

The 15 team will do their best to run as fast as they can and have as much fun as they can, no matter if there are fans there to see it or not.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll do their thing on Friday (6:30 p.m. Hot Laps, DirtVision.com<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they might not be there to see it, but a huge thanks goes out to Shafer Construction, Denny Woodworth, Rexco Equipment Inc. and Batts Farms,\u201d Gainey said. \u201cWe really couldn\u2019t run without them and hopefully we can show them a lot of exposure on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The end-of-year banquet that takes place at Knoxville Raceway after every season of racing is a night where the track hands out cash and contingency prizes to its drivers after a hard fought season. For some teams, it\u2019s an extra couple of parts they can use to upgrade their car here and there. However, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":315,"featured_media":8164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[1017,1395,1396,1356,1185,1397,1398],"class_list":["post-8163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dirt","category-more-racing","tag-bobby-mincer","tag-dennis-gainey","tag-factory-kahne-shocks","tag-joey-saldana","tag-knoxville-championship-cup-series","tag-maxim-chassis","tag-rudeen-motorsports"],"modified_by":"Connor Ferguson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}