The Build Log

P7 to P8 at Florence. Saw Jesus in Three. Hemi Next.

Started seventh. Finished eighth. The chassis spoke. The Hemi listens next.

Dylan "Mamba" Smith|May 10, 2026|2 min read

P7 to P8. Saw Jesus in turn three. The chassis spoke. The Hemi listens next. (corrected v4)

Florence is in the rearview.

The 25 qualified seventh. We finished eighth. Between those two facts: fifty laps of Limited Late Model racing on a 0.4-mile asphalt bullring, and one quick conversation with the Almighty entering turn three on a qualifying lap.

I pushed too hard. That's the qualifying story. The car had more in it than I trusted myself to find on a three-lap Euro-style run, and I asked too much of the front entering three. Saw Jesus. Got back to the line. Started seventh.

The race itself was the answer to the question we came to ask.

The No. 25 Queen City Garage Limited Late Model races wheel-to-wheel with the No. 70 Coastal Marine car under the lights at Florence Motor Speedway, May 9, 2026.

Wheel-to-wheel under the lights. Photo: Ethan Lopez (@drsoup26).

Lap after lap, the 25 ran in the same window as the front of the field. Same lap times. Same rhythm. We lost one position from start to finish — qualifying decided that, and the field was tight enough that pace alone wasn't going to claw the track position back — but the chassis told us exactly what we needed to know. The car has the pace to run with the leaders at this track on this tire on this baseline setup. That is the entire point of a chassis benchmark. We got it.

Michael Faulk built this thing. Michael Faulk always prepares great equipment, and that applied to the 25 today. First outing for a brand-new car, and we baseline the chassis without breaking it. That is the program working as designed.

Driver gloves hanging in the cockpit of the No. 25 at Florence Motor Speedway, May 9, 2026.

The 25's office. Photo: Ethan Lopez (@drsoup26).

A few thank-yous.

Mopar Direct Connection — the engine partner. The Hemi is real. The Hemi is in hand. The Hemi is what Saturday set up. None of this exists without you.

Mopar Heaven — on the hood today, where you belonged. Seven years from the 2019 Thrill Ride Tour to the first race in QCG colors. Thank you for the faith.

B/R Racing — on the quarter panels, where the grassroots story belongs. Glad to have the brand on the car for the first competitive outing.

Lee Faulk Racing — the shop. Mooresville. Faulk and the crew did the work.

Next. The 5.7L Hemi installation. We baselined the chassis. The PNL Hemi gets fitted against numbers we now own. The next post on the build log is the engine going in.

The PNL Hemi fits when the data says it does. Saturday, the data said go.

Update, May 10: Corrected after first publish — finishing position was P8, not P7. Slug also moved from p7-to-p7-florence-2026-05-09 → p7-to-p8-florence-2026-05-09. The chassis story is unchanged; the math now matches.