"Musical Cars" Oates, Aramendia, Brian

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Oates, Aramendia and Moczygemba Play "Musical Cars" in Late Models; Oates Takes Camaro to Second in Sportsman at SAS

 

San Antonio – Two weeks ago Joe Aramendia and Aramendia Racing helped 2004 NASCAR Sunbelt Champion Justin Oates by lending him an engine after the one in Oates' Affordable Trailers Chevrolet Monte Carlo blew at San Antonio Speedway (SAS) on April 23. Unfortunately, the "Spring Fling 75" race resulted in Aramendia, Oates and Aramendia's nephew, Brian Moczygemba, all up against the wall in turns one and two after 15 laps.

 

Aramendia was able to continue and finish seventh, but Oates and Moczygemba were done for the night. Both cars were repairable during the week, and everybody was back out this Saturday, Oates still with Aramendia Racing's backup motor in his Affordable Trailers entry. But Joe blew the engine in his #79 in practice and took over Moczygemba's #50 car. Oates then stepped out of his #0 car and handed it to Moczygemba, so everyone was happy with the possible exception of the scorers trying to remember who was in which car and Oates, who was participating only as a spectator.

 

"We planned for me to take over for Brian when the first caution came out," Justin said Monday. "That way, he'd protect his position in the points and I'd get some more seat time in the late model. But the caution didn't come out until late in the race, so we left Brian in the car."

It wasn't a bad night overall for Oates, as he climbed into the Affordable Trailers Camaro he used to win the Sunbelt title last year and ran to a strong finish behind new Sportsman points leader Eric Knudtson, who is racing full-time in the Sportsman class.

 

"We had repaired the car after the axle broke and put Dad into the wall two weeks ago," Justin says, "and the handling was pretty decent, but we were low on power." He still had enough for him and Eric to run from seventh and eighth on the grid to first and second.

 

"I want to make sure and thank Joe and Brian for helping us out with the late model," he said, "and giving us a chance to race two weeks in a row. Though it didn't work out the way we all wanted, I wouldn't have been out there in the late model at all the last two weeks without their help. We're pulling the engine out of the Camaro this week and using the block to build another engine, so we'll be back on Saturday."

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Contact: T. Q. Jones, (512) 261-5236