Engine Trouble, Borrowed Car, P3 Anyway

Homestead was supposed to be straightforward: another 12-hour with Zenith, another weekend in car #14, another step toward Daytona. It lasted about as long as the first lap of qualifying.

The engine let go coming from out lap. As surprising as it sounds, but a simple cone ruined the cooler and hence the engine got locked. #14 was done for the weekend before a single competitive lap had been turned. For a car that had carried the team all season, watching it get wheeled back into the garage in pieces was a hard way to start a race weekend.

What happened next is the only reason there's a race report to write at all. The #54 crew,running their own program, with their own plan for the weekend,offered up a seat. Ren, Max and I are exteremely greatfull to Garett and Jugo for this opportunity! New car, new teammates, and a little of time to get comfortable before the green flag, in a 12-hour race that doesn't care how your week has gone.

Florida didn't make it easy. What started as a hot, heavy afternoon turned into a genuinely rough,rain rolling through in waves, standing water in the braking zones, and lightning close enough to the circuit to bring out red flag after red flag. Long stretches of the race were spent parked in the garage watching the radar instead of the clock, then scrambling back out once the all-clear came through. It's the kind of night that wears a driver down more than a clean 12 hours ever would,constant restarts, cold tires, and a track that kept changing grip level every time the sky opened back up.

Through all of it, the #54 crew kept the car alive and in the fight. Every restart meant giving up track position and clawing it back in worse conditions than before, but the car stayed clean and the strategy stayed patient,no heroics, just steady, disciplined stints while faster cars around us made mistakes in the standing water plus had multiple panctures. By the final restart, P3 was there to be taken, and it was there to be held.

We haven't crossed the line, as we finished under the red flag, but got to the end in third, in a car we didn't know we'd be driving 24 hours earlier, said more about the #54 team than any result on paper could. It's the kind of finish that only happens because a group of strangers on Friday decided to race like a team by Saturday night.

Homestead wasn't the weekend anyone planned for, but it's the one that's going to stick. Next up is Daytona,the last race of the season, and one more shot to close it out on a high.