Patrick Carpentier isn't giving up. In fact, the driver of the #10 Valvoline Dodge owned by Gillett/Evernham continues to claw his way up the points ladder in his effort to break into the top 35.
"I'm really happy," Carpentier stated after exiting his race car. "We're getting better in the race and that's important. We need to get those points and a couple of top-30's.
"When you spend so much time qualifying, it takes the whole race to get the car to work properly, you know, just sliding and sliding and fixing it and fixing it. You get in the race and we made some changes this morning and the Valvoline Dodge was pretty good at the end."
Carpentier held his own, finishing 28th in the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, from a 27th place starting spot placing him 43rd in the driver standings and his car owners 42nd in their standings. Forty-second may not sound all that good, but off all the teams outside the top 35, Carpentier's effort led to the greatest forward movement - three spots.
The elusive 35th place spot is still 171 points away, or three races, at the current pace of the team's finishes. Until that time Carpentier will continue to be faced with the pressure of qualifying at every event based on time and not position.
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