Bryan Ortiz Battles to Third-Place Finish at Daytona

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Conventional wisdom says that a NASCAR neophyte like former road course racer Bryan Ortiz, the 2010 ESPN Deportes Magazine cover athlete, shouldn’t take to a 0.4-mile bullring like a duck to water. Seemingly, that’s what’s happened. In his first career start at historic short track Bowman Gray Stadium, Ortiz scored a third-place finish, his best of his rookie NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season.

 

On Tuesday night, in NASCAR’s inaugural UNOH Battle at the Beach at Daytona International Speedway, he emulated his Bowman Gray showing, piloting his No. 4 Putinka Vodka Toyota Camry to a third-place finish in the nationally televised exhibition consisting of drivers from both the K&N East and West divisions.

 

Overcoming a loose-handling racecar in his evening’s heat race, Ortiz finished seventh, securing a 14th-place starting spot for the feature race, a 150-lap contest that would pay the winner a cool $20,000. Ortiz was spun early in the feature by another competitor, dropping him deep in the running order, a lap down. He was the beneficiary of the free pass, putting him back on the lead lap, following an accident on lap 59 and remained on the lead lap for the remainder of the race.

 

As the car’s handling became tighter with dropping temperatures, Ortiz navigated through several hornet’s nests of activity in an event that saw 10 total caution flags and an average of 8.8 laps per green-flag run. Running in sixth on the white-flag lap, Ortiz dodged spinning racecars in turn 2 to emerge unscathed, crossing the finish line in third.

 

Quote from Bryan Ortiz:

 

“It was a great race for us. The Putinka Vodka Toyota was loose early, but that was by design. It came around when the sun set and I was really patient and fortunate to avoid a lot of accidents. It played out a lot like my race at Bowman Gray did and it’s a really good start to the season for this Rev Racing team.”

Rising Star Management PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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