Scott Gaylord (No. 00 Oliver Gravity Separators/Denver Seminary Chevrolet) avoided cars literally flipping over him, many crashes, and two cut tires -- and still managed to capture an 8th place finish in the NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series competition Relocate Here 200 presented by San Bernardino County at California Speedway on Friday, Sept. 1. "This was yet another hot, hot Southern California race this year, with temperatures in the 100's," Scott said. "When we started our practice sessions we had some pretty severe tire rubbing on the left front tire that would have surely resulted in a blown tire if not taken care of. We spent a lot of time in that session getting the proper authorization for an additional tire, as each team is limited to a certain number of tires for the race. Once back on the track we did the usual chassis adjustments to get a bit more speed out of the car, but I felt like we were 'in the ballpark' right off the bat. Toward the end of the session the car went down one cylinder. When I got back to our pit area, we discovered a burnt plug wire that we changed and secured so it wouldn't cause problems during the race." During the second practice session the changes we made to the chassis only seemed to worsen the handling. In the end we went back to where we started and called it good for the qualifying run. Scott ran a great lap during his run, beating his best time thus far by nearly a full second. That time put him 16th in the starting line up. All in all we were pretty pleased as it was a very competitive field, and Scott was faced with qualifying a car that had been radically changed before qualifying. Once the race started Scott did a great job moving up through the field. He liked the way the car was driving and was taking care in passing other cars. When the first yellow flag came out, he felt like he had a left rear tire going down. Luckily for us it was under caution, so he was able to come into the pits, verify and change the flat without losing a lap. He rejoined the field from the back but continued to scoot up through the field, running in the top 15 by the halfway point of the race. The race was plagued with many accidents, most of which seemed to be happening right in front of Scott. A particularly spectacular crash happened when a car flipped in mid-air and threatened to come to rest right on the top of the #00 Oliver Chevrolet. Thank goodness he was able to avoid that "bullet." By the last 25 laps, Scott had moved up to the fifth position with a pretty strong car. On a restart the top four cars were racing intensely, leaving the door open for Scott to take the lead. Unfortunately, one of the cars in the tangle shot across the track suddenly. Scott slamed on the brakes and locked them up but still caught his left front fender with another car. We felt like we could continue on but once we got back up to speed the left front tire had a pretty significant tire rub, which is dangerous at 170+ miles an hour! The car was still fast even with the body damage, but we couldn't come in and lose so much track position. Scott just had to ride it out. Then in turn one he heard a loud "pop" and the tire let go. Scott had to nurse the car around the track, taking care so the blown tire would not tear up the body or do any more damage to the car. He got the car to the pits, the crew got the tire changed and back under way but with the race still being green we did go down one lap. This happened with only about 15 laps remaining. We really needed one more caution and some great luck to put us back on the lead lap. Luckily, that happened! With nine laps to go, there was a caution flag, we got the lucky dog and now had a chance to at least get back to the top ten or so. Amazingly we did just that. Scott did a fantastic job of working through traffic all evening, and the crew did great with the scheduled and un-schedueled pit stops. Everyone on the team deserves a big pat on the back for earning an 8th place finish in the race. We all know we had the car to beat! You can see the tape delay on TV: HDNet (Live) SPEED (enhanced replay, Sept. 14, 2:30 p.m. PT) Scott has registered an even 80 career top-10 series finishes. He is sixth on the list among drivers in the modern era (since 1970). Gaylord is the only driver to compete in all 10 AutoZone West Series races that have been held at California Speedway. His best finish there was fourth in 2004. The next event on the NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series schedule will be at Thunderhill Raceway in Kyle, Texas, on Sept. 30th.