The Snake Bitten Saga Continues for Casey Smith At the Rattler

Austin, TX 3/10/09- The 33^rd version of the annual Rattler 250 race at Opp, Alabama’s South Alabama Speedway seemed to be the ideal place for Texas native Casey Smith to start his 2009 racing season out; besides it was the track that Smith had won the last two years worth of Viper series super late model championships. Unfortunately, it was like déjà vu of the same race a year ago. Smith was crowned the 2009 Viper series champion even having a live rattlesnake draped over his shoulders before seeing a solid run end early due to a broken gear just 115 laps in.

“It’s pretty disappointing to end the way we did after how good of a car we had. We practiced well both Friday and Saturday so we knew that our car would race well and it did. Breaking a gear is something you just can’t control and I think that’s probably the main reason why it bothers me more than something else,” stated Casey.

The broken gear was the reason why Casey’s day came to any early end but there may be more to it. On Saturday afternoon’s super late model qualifying Smith broke an axle on his #99 Rapid Disposal/Smith Paving Chevy Monte Carlo during his first shift through the gearbox resulting in having to use one of his Viper series championship perks of a guaranteed top ten starting position. One would have to wonder if perhaps this may have played a part in the broken gear issue. While the mechanical issue may have been the main topic of discussion in the Smith camp, the fact that he had a car that could have definitely competed for the win was seen by all in attendance.

“I’m kind of thinking that maybe when we broke that axle in qualifying it may have hurt something in the rear end, but I’m not really sure until we get it back to the shop and look everything over. We’ll just move forward from here and start focusing on the new Gulf Coast Championship series at Pensacola and Mobile in a couple weeks,” added Smith.