DUQUOIN, Ill. – Ever since suffering an engine failure at Madison Int’l Speedway in June that derailed his USAC Silver Crown Championship season, Austin Nemire has been waiting for a chance to rebound.

Nemire was able to capitalize on that chance during the most-recent Silver Crown event at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Aug. 18, surviving to the end of the Bettenhausen 100 and charging from 16th on the grid to an eighth-place finish.

The run, easily the Ohio native’s cleanest and most productive of the season on the dirt, marked a big sigh of relief for both Nemire and his team after their tumultuous first half.

“We were good, certainly better than we’ve been for most of this season, so that was definitely a weight off our shoulders … to just go out and finish and have a good day,” Nemire said. “We got there early, and we were decent right out of the box. We had the speed, and I think going out early in qualifying was actually the right thing for us this time because we landed in the top half of the field, which was good.

“I actually think we should have started better than what we did, because we were better in practice than we were in qualifying, but that set us up to have a decent day and then we just went out and performed like we knew we could in the race,” added Nemire. “If we’d been able to start in the first three or four rows, I think we could have had an even better day, but I’m content with what we accomplished at Springfield. I’m not happy, because I know we can do better, but it was good.”

Surprising to most, Springfield was just Nemire’s second top-10 finish of the season, after a myriad of assorted mechanical woes kept him out of contention for the majority of the spring and summer.

“It’s nice to finally have a result at all,” Nemire admitted. “We’ve been struggling to finish races and struggling to keep the motor together, so to get out of Springfield in one piece and get a top 10 like we should have a few times already … that’s a confidence booster, for sure.”

While Springfield and DuQuoin – two of the three dirt miles on the Silver Crown schedule – run back to back on the calendar, Nemire noted that the two tracks aren’t as similar as they might appear.

In fact, he said the style of racing at DuQuoin on Labor Day weekend changes more often than not.

“The first couple of years that we went to DuQuoin, (the groove) was right along the fence and there was a cushion, but other years it’s slicked off and there’s little to no cushion, so it’s hard to know what to expect when you go there,” Nemire noted. “Both Springfield and DuQuoin are both pretty fast miles, but I think the straightaways at DuQuoin are a little faster.

“I think the biggest challenge with the race at DuQuoin is that it’s a night race, and that’s always different with how the track does or doesn’t take rubber and build a cushion,” continued Nemire. “I don’t necessarily have a preference between day or night, but it’s certainly a bit of a different atmosphere under the lights and a whole lot of fun.”

One big goal that Nemire has for this weekend’s event at DuQuoin is improving his starting position, with qualifying being something his team has struggled with somewhat this year.

“We’ve proved in the past that you can start in the back and make your way forward, but to be able to save that extra little bit and not have to push so hard to pass people definitely helps a lot. As soon as we can get our qualifying pace down and finally start up front, then we can be more worried about maintaining that pace and chasing the lead … and maybe a win if we play our cards right.”

Regardless of where he starts on Sunday, Nemire believes he’s every bit as capable of contending up front now as he was earlier in the season, before his team hit their slump in performance.

“My confidence never went anywhere; we’ve had speed, we just hadn’t put together a complete night except for at Toledo,” said Nemire. “I think if we can go forward like we did at Springfield and have the same pace at DuQuoin that we did a couple weeks ago, we’ll be alright and we might surprise people.”