John Wes Townley posted a 13th place finish in the running of the Aaron’s 312 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, piloting the No. 25 Zaxby’s Toyota Camry at Talladega Superspeedway Saturday afternoon after a second place finish in the ARCA Racing Series earlier in the day on the 2.66-mile superspeedway.
Townley started in the 15th-place position on the starting grid for the first race out of the gate for Athenian Motorsports team, making it to the second of three rounds of qualifying races.
Townley’s Camry was fast from the beginning of the 117-lap Aaron’s 312, running three and four wide around the famed Alabama racetrack.
The Athenian Motorsports pit crew was in top form coming down pit road under caution on lap 29, taking two right side tires and advancing five positions to restart 14th on lap 33. Townley returned to pit road on lap 45 taking two left side Goodyear tire restarting in the eighth-place. The team pitted the Zaxby’s Camry twice more taking only fuel only one stop and two right side tires on the next.
Catastrophe almost occurred for the Athenian Motorsports team on lap 107 when the No. 9 car came down the track and clipped the front of the No. 25 Nationwide Series car 10-laps remaining. The damage was minimal to Townley’s car, so crew chief Mike Beam kept the car out of the pits restarting him in the eighth-place position for a green/white/checkered finish. Townley crossed the finish line in Athenian Motorsports first NASCAR Nationwide Series debut in the 13th-place position.
“All in all it was a great day,” John Wes Townley said. “We had some good runs. We got on the outside a few times, we just never could really make it work for us. At the end of the day, we pulled off a top-15 finish — 13th is great for any Nationwide team just starting out for its first time I think. It’s not what everybody really wants, but at the end of the day the Zaxby’s Toyota Camry came out looking pretty good and that’s what we wanted. We just wanted to kind of get out there and earn some respect as a team and I think we did that. Also, we have 12 more Nationwide Races left this year. Our intentions are to learn and obtain information from these races in order to be better prepared for the 2015 Nationwide Series.”
Townley and the No. 25 Zaxby’s Athenian Motorsports team will return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Saturday, May 24, 2014. Townley will be back in action Friday, May 9th in the No. 5 Zaxby’s Toyota Tundra in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway.
Athenian Motorsports PR
