Starting 36th, Garvey ran in the top 20 much of the race. He even led one lap, electing to stay out during a caution. If not for a brake problem that forced him to slow down with 30 laps to go, he might have finished even higher.
Since then, Garvey has competed in two other Nextel Cup races. He finished 36th at both Michigan and New Hampshire and failed to qualify at Daytona and Chicagoland.
Because of his first run at Pocono, Garvey is excited about returning this weekend for the Pennsylvania 500.
“We’ll have a better idea of what to expect,” Garvey said. “Our results haven’t shown it, but I think the team is getting stronger every week.”
A native of Muskegon, Mich., Garvey began his racing career after graduating high school in 1980. He cut his teeth on the short tracks, driving Late Models. He is a two-time winner of the All-American 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds, one of the nation’s top short track events.
“I’m just a guy who wanted to race his whole life,” Garvey said. “I’ve raced just about every short track there is and won in every series I’ve raced, whether it’s been ASA, Hooters Pro Cup. I ran every series that Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace did coming up. In the past, that was the way to get to Winston Cup or Nextel Cup.”
His 22 career wins in ASA are tied with Martin for fifth on the series’ all-time list. In November, he will be inducted into the Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame.
“I didn’t know what to think. Usually when you’re inducted into a Hall of Fame, you’re not racing anymore,” Garvey said. “I don’t know if they’re saying I should quit or what. . . Maybe when I’m done racing, it will sink in.”
For now, Garvey is far from finished. His main goal is to help the Peak Performance Motorsports team grow.
“We’re realistic. We’re not ready to win yet,” he said. “We’re not even close to being a top-10, top-15 team. We’re working hard to try to become a top-25 team.
“We keep working on the car, but every time you fix one thing, it brings up another. It’s just like dominoes.”
Last week, the team tested for two days at Indianapolis in preparation for the upcoming Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. Garvey said the sessions were extremely beneficial, enabling the team to learn some different things. Some of what they gleaned will be put to immediate use.
“We found some things at Indy that worked that we can’t wait to try at Pocono,” Garvey said. “If we could come to Pocono and get a top 15 or a top 20, right now for our team that would be like a win.”
It would be a pretty interesting story, too.
Click here to read the article at The Times-Tribune.com
Contact the writer: swalsh@timesshamrock.com