Encouraging Ice Bowl Start Ends Early with Steering Issues.

Maddux was forced to pull off the track after steering issues in the 32nd Ice Bowl.

EASTABOGA, AL - Saturday, January 7th, 2023, Maddux Mullinax made his first start in the famous Ice Bowl at Talladega Short Track in 11th place but had to pull off the track on lap two.

The weekend started on Thursday of that week with a day of open practice where the team took the car out for three practice sessions. Practice was marked with a rough racetrack and Maddux becoming reacquainted to the large Super Late Model engine again. After setting fast time in the final practice session, the team had confidence going into qualifying the next day.

Friday started off with hot-lap-qualifying where Maddux qualified sixth in the first group with a time of 15.175. This gave Maddux a good starting position in the heat race where the first cars of the weekend would lock-in to the feature event.

Maddux started third in the twelve-lap heat race where the top four would advance to the big race. When the green flag dropped Maddux did not get a good start but quickly caught the leaders coming out of turn two.

The next corner Maddux had his only major slip up of the race where he entered the corner a little hard but recovered, keeping his position. Maddux continued to chase down Chase Oliver who was in second but ran out of laps before he could set up a pass, finishing third and locking into the big show.

Saturday was race day and after the morning preparations it was time to race. The track conditions were going to be rough as the track had dried out and taken rubber. This meant that the race would be a one lane racetrack where any slip up could cost the driver the race.

Maddux rolled onto the track in eleventh position out of the twenty-four-car field. When the green flag dropped Maddux got off to a good start but chaos in front of him led to a wreck in turn two that Maddux had to avoid by driving through the infield of the track.

After the wreckage was cleaned up the race had a complete restart where another good start had Maddux moving forward in the pack. He was in the grove that he wanted to be and after one completed lap the caution came out again after two cars behind Maddux wrecked out in turn one.

This restart put Maddux on the outside, out of the groove, and when the green flag dropped Maddux spun his tires and lost two positions. He made them up pretty quickly though, pulling down under the car that had passed him on and getting back around.

On lap two Maddux felt his wheel violently jerking back and forth in his hands and had to make a quick decision to safely pull off the track, fearing a broken right front wheel. When he got to the pits the team assessed the problem and found a broken steering servo and the day was over for the Mullinax Racing team.

Though Maddux only completed two laps of the Ice Bowl, the team is still coming out of the weekend confident. They proved that they could take a home built engine and run with the best of the best in the Iron Man Late Model Series, along with making big races.

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