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Jerrod Hull- Maxim Massage!

An ill-handling sprint car has plagued Jerrod Hull and the Heartland Trailer Manufacturing #12 team of late, but crew chief Scott Bonar went to work on their Maxim and it paid off at last weekend’s Gold Crown Nationals at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois. The Sikeston, Missouri driver will finish up his season this weekend with the MOWA series at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois.

Things started with a solid qualifying effort in Friday’s prelim in Granite City. “Scott cut the frame, let it relax and welded it back together,” says Jerrod. “It was working like a charm. We ran pretty well. The first night, we qualified fifth and they drew straight up for the heats. We started second and we were able to win that. The car felt really nice.”

The feature was next. “They did another straight-up draw for the feature and we started outside row one,” says Jerrod. “We fell back to second there early, and then back to third on the second lap. We were a little loose getting into the corners, but we were pretty fast. I messed up then and fell back to fourth.”

Jerrod would surge back and was in contention to the checkers. “We were riding there close to second and third,” he says. “I got the wing back, and we actually started rolling through the middle. The air was hitting us wrong following them on the cushion. That felt pretty good, and there was a caution late in the race. We were able to get to third, and stay right there with (Brady) Bacon who was second. We thought we might get him a couple times when he got over the cushion, but we held on for third. That was the best finish we’ve had in a while, so we felt good.”

The team used a different motor on Saturday. “We qualified eighth, which really wasn’t too bad,” says Jerrod. “Scott bought a 12-head motor from Kim Mock and they hadn’t run it in a year and a half. Granite City is a pretty big track for that. My motor has 28 nights on it, and Scott’s has quite a few nights too. We were happy with eighth quick. The track was really fast around the cushion, so we started third and ran third in the heat. That put us in the redraw. We needed an eight and they drew a four. We started eighth, and right from the get go, we were fast.”

Jerrod felt comfortable and moved forward right away. “We were getting by cars pretty quickly there early,” he says. “We were able to get up to third. The bottom started going away, and we moved to the top. We felt good up there. Bacon and (Brad) Loyet were ahead of us and they weren’t pulling away. I thought we’d get in some lapped traffic there and catch them. I got into the wall and bent something. The cushion was right on the wall, and I got it. Parker Price-Miller got us for third. We ran with him for there and couldn’t get back around him and ended up fourth.”

It was a welcome reprieve from the battles that Jerrod and the team have had with the car lately. “The biggest thing was the car felt comfortable,” he says. “We haven’t had that in several races. We had a good weekend and we have Jacksonville this weekend. We’re hoping to end the year on a positive note. Scott will check the car over this week and have it ready for us!”

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