(NEWTON, Iowa - July 15, 2012) - Carter 2 Motorsports entered the weekend looking for a little luck as they brought a new car and sponsor to Iowa Speedway. Unfortunately, Friday the 13th proved not to be the day for a turn of good omens for the C2M team.

Driving the newly sponsored Racing to Save America No. 40 Dodge, owner Roger Carter was ready to get back to competitive racing at the 7/8-mile track of Iowa Speedway for the Prairie Meadows 200. With a new sponsor, savetheusconstitution.org, the team was ready to bring awareness to our US constitution and get back to competitive racing. However, shortly after the drop of the green flag, handling issues got the best of the car, forcing Carter to exit the race early after completing 54 of the scheduled 200-lap race. 

“I had been looking forward to running Iowa for weeks now, especially when I knew Racing to Save America would be on board, but we just missed it on the set up and it put us behind from the get go,” said Carter. “I love this type of racing so it was real tough to have such a short end to our race.”

Handling issues was a key story for C2M, as Larry Barford Jr. in the No. 04 1st Mariner Mortgage/Trauma Doc/ RAD Racing Dodge. With a new car, Barford Jr. was looking forward to challenging his best finish to date in the ARCAR Racing Series presented by Menard, which is currently 15th at Winchester Speedway.  Just like the 10 tracks before Iowa Speedway, this was Barford Jr.’s first appearance at the multi-grove track where getting the right set-up became a challenge for the rookie team.

After qualifying 28th, the team fought a loose condition as they patiently waited for the first caution to make adjustments.  The ominous first caution didn’t make its first appearance until lap 75, making it an obstacle for the C2M team to rebound after losing so much ground early on. Despite their early obstacles, Barford Jr. and the No. 04 team were able to rebound to a 23rd place finish.

“We didn't finish as good as we wanted to. Through practice we made drastic adjustments on the car, so we had no handling during qualifying, which set us back for the first 3/4 of the race,” said Barford Jr., who’s part of the Team Messina Rookie Challenge.  “It was our first time at Iowa so we didn’t know what to expect and it’s a definitely a tough track to figure out but I enjoyed the challenge. The whole C2M did a great job, but we’re just ready to put this race behind us and rebound at Chicago.”

Desite the bumpy run, Barford Jr. remains 11th in points, as he keeps his eyes on the top 10. A special thanks to all of C2M’s supporters, including R.J. Nash Construction, Kentucky Building, Racedaysponsors.com, Gunk and Liquid -Wrench and irstaxsurvivor.com. Next up for Carter, Barford Jr. and the whole C2M team is the 1.5-mile oval at Chicagoland Speedway. Practice will be held on Friday, July 20, with Menards Pole Qualifying present by Ansell and the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge race both taking place on Saturday, July 21, which will be live on SPEED.