Mansfield, OH (August 24, 2008): Jamie Hayes survived losing the power steering on his #52 J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet, but the Ken Schrader Racing driver couldn’t overcome the failure of his fuel pump. The mechanical woe forced the team to park his car in the infield with 49 laps remaining to the NASCAR Camping World Series East’s Mansfield 150 in Ohio. He finished the race with a disappointing 25th place.

“I wrestled with the power steering for about a hundred laps and then the fuel pump quit,” a dejected Hayes said after the race. “It was one thing after another. I think we might have had a top-10 car if we didn’t have those problems. We’ll just go back to the shop, work on these cars, and get ready for New Hampshire.”

Hayes posted a lap of 107.105 mph (16.806 seconds) in qualifying to earn a respectable 14th place starting position in the field. Hayes immediately advanced to the 11th position and maintained that spot through a caution-plagued first half of the race.

Hayes performance was impressive as the power steering in his J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet faded fast on the driver.

“We were just trying to keep our nose clean. We had signs of the power steering box catching in the front end in practice. From about lap 15 of the race, it got worse and worse and worse. Finally, the power steering just went away. It had fluid in it, but it just went away. We have to get it back to the shop and see what the deal was.”

The end came for Hayes on lap 103 when he suddenly fell off the pace and coasted to a stop in turn two. Hayes had to be pushed off the track to the infield where his Ken Schrader Racing crew could assess the problem.

It was discovered that a faulty fuel pump was to blame for Hayes’ ultimate end to his day. Hayes parked the car and retired from the race with only 103 laps complete.

The team is off until September 12th when they return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the final time this season.