Lewis shines brightly on a cloudy day

Ashton Lewis Jr.

By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
October 8, 2001
10:59 AM EDT (1459 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. -- At one point this season, Ashton Lewis Jr. was ready to lock the doors to his race shop for good.

However, with a fifth-place finish in Saturday’s Little Trees 300 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Lewis looked ready to kick open the door to a promising future.

Coming into Saturday's race, Lewis' best finish in 2001 had been a fifth at Kentucky, his only top-10 finish of the season. Qualifying hadn't been the problem -- but finishing races had.

Lewis' Driver Page  Lewis' 2001 Stats  Video: Lewis finished 5th  Kenseth spins, Biffle wins  Little Trees 300 Results  Driver Standings

He qualified eighth this time, just like he had done before. But unlike his previous bad luck, he didn’t run out of fuel, get a flat tire or have engine problems.

“This is fantastic, I’m just so happy for the team,” an emotional Lewis said. “For the hours my guys put in, for not having a sponsorship, and put the commitment behind me like they do, to come here and run this well is fantastic.

“We’ve been knocking on the door ever since the beginning of the year with some top-10 qualifying and top-10 runs. We just haven’t been able to put the finishes together.

“We knew we could do this. We just have to keep telling ourselves that.”

Lewis nearly took a finishing spot away from points leader Kevin Harvick. With about 10 laps remaining, Harvick and Lewis had a spirited battle for position, with Lewis looking to the inside of Harvick’s No. 2 Chevrolet more than a few times.

With his finish Saturday, Aston Lewis Jr. now has two fifth-place finishes this season.

“If I hadn’t knocked the grille screen off on that one restart, I might have had something for him,” Lewis said. “It made the car so tight and we all got stacked up there. We had an awesome racecar and we just kind of hung on there at the end.”

The Lewis Motorsports team of owner Ashton Lewis Jr. -- Ashton's father -- and crew chief Charlie Lewis -- Ashton's brother -- has been hanging on all season, running the car with the words "Your Logo Here" where a sponsor's name should be.

“There aren’t many sponsors out there and I don’t know what’s going to happen to the team,” Lewis said. “I just think of the guys and everything they give to me and my dad and family. It’s what we dream of.

“No matter what happens to the team, they can’t take this (finish) away from us.”