On a hot night in Newton, Iowa, Kaz Grala showed the poise and patience of a driver well beyond his years in rallying through the field to an eleventh place finish, having faced early race adversity.
After qualifying his Ben Kennedy Racing OzLINK Toyota Camry in the 23rd position, Grala was issued a penalty on the first lap of the #ThanksKenny150 as a result of an evasive maneuver he took in order to avoid contact just after the drop of the Green Flag.
“At the start of the race the whole inside line checked up,” said Grala. “While trying to avoid contact with the car ahead, I quickly pulled out of line and then tried to check up enough to stay even with him. Unfortunately, I was still alongside him when we reached Turn 1, so we had to come down pit road under green and serve the penalty.”
After serving the pass through penalty, Grala found himself one lap down as he rejoined the field in 38th position. He immediately went to work laying down lap times comparable to that of the leaders of the race. By the first caution at lap 30, Grala had already regained 10 positions and had earned the Lucky Dog, which put him back on the lead lap. On the restart, the 16-year-old Boston native continued to methodically work his way through traffic, avoiding a Lap 46 incident in Turn 1. At the lap 75 break, having fought his way up to P16, Grala brought his No. 3 OzLINK Toyota Camry for adjustments and four tires.
On the restart, Grala was able to race his way up to the 12th position before the handling went away on his No. 3 OzLINK Toyota Camry. “At the break, Mike Fritts and the Ben Kennedy Racing crew made adjustments to the car to fix a loose condition. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after the break that we realized that the loose condition I had been experiencing was likely due to a cut tire and so unfortunately, the adjustments resulted in the car becoming extremely tight.” explained Grala.
On a late race restart, Grala, who had fallen back to the 15th position, was able to capitalize on a three-wide battle off of Turn 2 to take the checkered flag in P11.
“While the race didn’t exactly go according to plan, I’m actually really happy with our finish,” said Grala. “To have battled our way back from 38th to an 11th place finish overall and a 7th place finish in the K&N Pro Series East was definitely rewarding, and surprisingly, turned out to be a pretty good points day for us!” said Grala.
With the finish, Grala continued his march towards the top-5 in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings, advancing to the seventh position only five points out of fifth place. Grala will look to use his diverse background, which includes numerous sports car starts and one previous NASCAR K&N Pro Series East start at Watkins Glen International when the series returns to action on Friday, August 6.
Ben Kennedy Racing PR
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