Easley, SC: It doesn’t officially exist on the race report, but the NASCAR Home Tracks 150 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway had it’s own version of a bone-jarring “big-one”. The crash occurred before the first lap was even completed and collected a third of the field, including Fadden Racing’s #16 C Products LLC Chevrolet driven by Jonathan Smith. NASCAR decided to start all over, but with a bent frame, Fadden Racing could do no such thing.

“I was sitting there for a good five or ten seconds and then I just got hit,” explained Smith. “I wasn’t ready for it. The panhard bar got bent, bolts were missing, we went down a left rear tire –that just screwed us up. The car was just acting pretty whacky and I had to try to just hold on.”

Everyone at Fadden Racing was feeling pretty confident after a practice session yielded the sixth fastest time of the day.

“I found out that Jonathan likes the car a lot like Mike (Olsen) did,” said crew chief Harry Norcross. “He’s doing a really great job out there today.”

But qualifying didn’t fare as well. Smith posted a lap of 21.441 seconds on his time trial – a speed better than he posted in practice - but not enough to top the charts. He had to start the race in 19th.

Smith’s day took a dramatic turn as he entered turn one on the first lap of the event. Ten cars got tangled up, including the Fadden Racing entry, and a red flag was brought out to clean up the mess.

The team opted to leave Smith out on the racetrack since he could move under his own power, however, at lap five a left rear tire went down and Smith was forced to head to pit road. There the team discovered the multiple issues with the car. They decided they would send him back into the race to get some valuable experience and championship points.

`“I know that wasn’t fun for him, but we gained about six or seven spots by doing that. At the end of the year that might add up to something,” said Olsen.

Smith took the checkers with a 19th place finish – eight spots higher than if he had parked the C Products LLC Chevrolet after the flat tire.

“I just went out and turned some laps, waited it out, and hoped for attrition. We’ll go back to Tri-County and do it all over again. We’ll get out front and stay there,” Smith concluded.