Cole Whitt led his BK Racing teammates to the checkered flag with an 18th-place finish in the No. 26 Uponor Plumbing Systems Toyota Camry at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Whitt was followed by Alex Bowman in the No. 23 DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry who finished 29th, and JJ Yeley who finished 39th in the No. 83 DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry.
In their second race this season at Martinsville Speedway, Whitt rolled off 36th for Sunday’s 500-mile event. Throughout the afternoon, Whitt reported that the nose of his car would slide through the tight turns of the paperclip-shaped track. Fortunately, Whitt was able to safely maintain his position on the track while continuing to race inside the top-35 during the first half of the event. By the Lap 222 caution period, Whitt was awarded the free pass to return to the lead lap of competition. Throughout the second half of the event, pit strategy came into play as the Uponor Plumbing Systems Toyota Camry team was able to take advantage of several free passes and wave-around rules to maintain their position on the lead lap. Visiting pit road for four tires and fuel under caution with less than 10 laps remaining, Whitt was able to avoid the late-race calamity to finish in the 18th position. The result marked Whitt’s third top-20 finish of the season.
“Martinsville can be such a tough track, but we had a good day with our Uponor Plumbing Systems Toyota Camry,” commented Whitt. “There were a lot of torn up racecars, but we were able to escape the afternoon fairly unscathed. We’ve been able to put together some good runs this season, and this weekend was certainly one of them. If we can continue to have luck on our side over the coming weeks, I think we’ll be able to finish out the season strong.”
After rolling off in the 32nd position, Bowman’s day was filled with ups and downs. The Sunoco rookie contender spun off in turn two on just the fifth lap. Luckily, he was able to escape any major damage and continued on in the 500-mile competition. With the DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry tight in the center of the corners throughout the opening stages of the race, Bowman worked closely with his BK Racing team to make adjustments and improve the balance of their racecar. On lap 208, Bowman was involved in a two-car accident and sustained heavy front-end damage to the DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry. Bringing his car to the attention of his BK Racing team, they were able to cut off the front fenders of the No. 23 machine and send Bowman back on-track. Continuing to the checkered flag without any additional incidents, Bowman was credited with a 29th-place finish.
“There’s always a lot of action on the track at Martinsville,” commented Bowman. “Unfortunately, we were included in some of it this afternoon. We didn’t have any damage from the initial spin, but the accident near the halfway point left our DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry pretty hurt. Fortunately, aerodynamics don’t really matter here, so my BK Racing team was able to quickly cut off the damaged sheet metal and get us back on the track. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car again next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.”
The theme at Martinsville was one of survival for Yeley. On the second restart of the afternoon, Yeley was the victim of an “accordion effect” accident, as the field bunched up in front of him and Yeley was left with no escape route. Unfortunately, the veteran driver made heavy contact with the car in front of him and sustained major damage to his DipYourCar.com Toyota Camry. With a broken radiator and oil cooler, Yeley was forced to the garage area where his BK Racing team worked quickly to replace both parts. Losing approximately 60 laps for repairs, Yeley returned to the track where he logged laps until the checkered flag waved. At the conclusion of 500 miles, Yeley was scored with a 39th-place finish.
“We had a rough day today,” commented Yeley. “We just couldn’t really catch a break. Clearly, you can’t race a car with a damaged radiator or oil cooler, so we lost some ground replacing those two parts. Martinsville is such a quick track that once you lose that ground, there really is no recovering from it. However, I’m proud of my guys for getting everything changed out as quickly as they did and I appreciate all their hard work.”
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