With solid runs in practice and qualifying 28th for the AAA Texas 500, the Leavine Family Racing team and driver Michal McDowell had a good outlook for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Unfortunately, a faulty tachometer led to multiple pit road speeding penalties for the No. 95 Tommy Williams Drywall (TWD) Ford and put the team six laps down early in the race.
The detriment came at laps 90-93, when the team incurred two pit road penalties – the first being a “drive through” penalty and then a “stop-and-go” penalty. This was all under green and the team fell six laps behind the leader.
With these two back-to-back penalties and McDowell following his on-board system, the team quickly determined that the tachometer was off in the No. 95.
Now sitting in 40th position, championship crew chief Wally Rogers immediately implemented a pit strategy to regain laps and move the No. 95 back up the field.
The Leavine Family Racing team used opportune cautions to gain positions and at the end of the 500-mile race, the No. 95 TWD Ford finished in 30th position.
“It’s easy to just ride in the back after you go six laps down that quickly, but that’s not how our team is built,” said McDowell. “We make the most of every opportunity we have at the track and in the car. We learned some things in this race and we’ll move on to Phoenix and Homestead for the final two.”
The Leavine Family Racing team is staying in Texas for the week and will travel on Thursday to Phoenix International Raceway for the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, Nov. 9.
Prior to heading to Phoenix, McDowell and Rogers will spend the early part of the week in the outdoors hunting with executives from Tommy Williams Drywall (TWD).
LFR PR
