Honorary Crew Chief, Skyla
As Dylan rolled out his Super Late Model from the race trailer, he had a different kind of grin on his face. You might think it is because of the new look of his car. Or maybe the new sponsor that has joined the DMR team, Pro Car Automotive Shop in Lakeland. Well if you guessed any of those you were partially right but the biggest reason was a little 9 year old girl named Skyla. She was going to be his Honorary Crew Chief for the race. Skyla is one of the 3 children that CARS Racing For A Cause is helping this year. Dylan has taken it upon himself to raise $10,000 for these kids. Skyla had quite the day. It first started off with some concession stand food from Steve Fawcett and his kids. Then she went and met the DMR crew.
Dylan’s car was in line for qualifying when Skyla saw her name on it…Honorary Crew Chief Skyla! She was all smiles. It was time to go and watch Dylan qualify. 16 cars lined up to take their 2 laps. With the scoreboard not working it took a few minutes after qualifying was over to see where Dylan qualified. He was 9th fastest with a 13.857 second lap. This was not good. These were the same times he had been running all day with 200 lap tires on. The new tires seemed to not be any good. This would later prove to be correct.
The autograph session was about to start when Skyla jumped on the DMR golf cart. She was ready to go down and hang out with Dylan by his car. This little girl took right to being a part of the team. She asked if she could help. So as Dylan signed hero cards and smiled for pictures, Skyla was right beside him smiling and handing out coloring sheets. As the front stretch cleared and the fans went back to take their seats for the 100 lap race, Skyla walked up to Dylan and gave him a little motivational speech. She said, “Dylan, get your butt in the seat, grab ahold of the steering wheel and believe in yourself.” As Dylan smiled he crawled into the car and buckled up. Skyla had one more job to do before the race started. Once the drivers were all in their cars and ready to go, this little girl battling leukemia shouted with everything she had, “Gentlemen start your engines!”
At 9:05pm, with the heat of the day still lingering the green flag dropped. Dylan was starting 5th row inside. The #98 runs him side by side for a couple laps and then finally gets around him. It didn’t take long for the field to spread out and get single file. About 15 laps into the race, Dylan laps the #72. He seems to be fighting the car through the corners and his times show that. Lap 18 drops the first caution for the #10 as he spins in turn 3 & 4. Chad asks Dylan how the car feels. Dylan says, “I can drive it in but I can’t get it to rotate in the center.” He lines up for the restart in 11th.
Right off the bat, Dylan gets a good jump and gets to the inside of #19. He takes over 10th spot. A couple laps later the #19 taps him in the rear going into turn 1 but Dylan holds on and maintains his position. The cars are single file again for about 10 laps. The #10 tries to get Dylan on the inside but can’t make it work. But then a lap later he tries again and is able to get Dylan up out of the groove. The #19 is there to follow. The next lap though the #19 loses control going into turn 1 and the second caution is out.
Dylan restarts 11th but a lap later the #25 spins to bring another caution out. He restarts 10th but as we all know cautions breed cautions and the yellow is out again for the #23. Lap 51, Dylan is 10th. They get one lap in before the #82 spins and almost collects Dylan but he quickly goes high and barely misses him. Quick reaction time for the 17 year old in his only 5th race in this Super Late Model. Chad tells him, “Way to go buddy, nice job!”
Lap 55, he is 8th when the green flag drops again. A lap later Dylan gets pinched up to the wall and the #30 gets him on the inside and #23 follows. The caution then comes out for the #58. Dylan is 11th when they go back green for a lap before they go yellow again. One lap later the #25 & #58 spin for yet another caution. Dylan restarts 10th but he is fighting the car every lap. It just won’t turn through the corners. The #23 gets to his inside and makes the pass. The #20 does the same the next lap. He is up on the wheel doing everything he can to make his car turn.
The yellow flag comes out for the #10 & #42. This causes some issues which result in the #42 being black flagged. When Dylan takes the green on lap 70 he is 8th. This race proves to be full of cautions as the next one falls for the #10 and the #20 is sent to the rear. He is now 6th but not for long. His car just won’t turn and as he struggles with it he gets jacked up going into turn 1 and hung out to dry as a few cars pass him. Lap 79 sees another caution for the #20 and #58.
Dylan is restarting 8th but a lap later he falls to 9th when the #10 gets by him. Chad apologizes for the way the car is handling and tells Dylan to keep doing what he can. There will be 2 more cautions in the race and Dylan has done everything he can to keep his car out of the wrecks. When the checkered flag drops, he is 11th. Any driver will tell you when you can drive your car back into the trailer after a race it is a good race. Crew Chief, Chad Pierce, had this to say, “Not how we wanted to finish but on the bright side we have some good notes to go to Five Flags with.”
The crew had worked very hard to give Dylan a good car but as was said earlier, the tires were a huge factor in this race. When the guys gathered the tire info after the race the front had closed up a lot. Not what any crew chief wants to see. Dylan said, “It was an exciting race. I had to wheel it the whole time and stay on my toes to avoid the wrecks.” He didn’t get the finish they wanted but he gained some valuable seat time and made one little girl very happy. Skyla had this to say about the day, “It was a GREAT race, and I think Dylan really listened to me when I gave him his pep talk cause he tried really hard! I loved the race, and had a blast. I really enjoyed telling Dylan what to do (as she is smiling ear to ear). I had so much fun hanging out with Miss Kim and Dylan. Everybody was so nice, and I loved the food too.” Thanks to everyone that came out to watch the race and to all the sponsors for their help. Everyone here at DMR welcome Pro Care to our team! Buckle up and hang on tight cuz you are in for one heck of a ride!!
Chad Pierce Motorsports will be getting the Super Late Model ready for its first time ever at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola for the July 24th Blizzard race.
Special Thanks to: Rex Guy for helping make Skyla’s day extra special. Steve Fawcett for the extra special treat of concession stand food for Skyla.
To stay updated with all of Dylan’s events and races go to www.DylanMartinRacing.com
(Photos by Ciara Martin & Press Release Credit to Kim Scheffler)
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