Segio Pena Top Ten at BIR

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West teams went to Brainerd International Raceway (BIR) for the NAPA Know-How “125”.  Sergio Pena, who pilots the No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry for Bill McAnally Racing, goal of recording the first win was hampered two flat left rear tires at the 2.5-mile road course.

Practice had the No. 16 NAPA Toyota sixth on the timing charts. Pena would qualify on the inside of row two, with a time of 1:33.450.

The field took the green with the series point leader taking the lead before lap one was even complete. After the first 15 laps of the 50 lap race, Pena was now in seventh. There was another lead change at lap 17. The first of two cautions came out at lap 20 as a car dropped oil on the track with Pena making a pit stop for fuel shortly before the caution flag was displayed. He reentered the race in eighth. By lap 29, the NAPA Toyota was up to fifth. The second caution came out at lap 32 resulting in the race being red flagged for cleanup of the track.

At lap 35, Pena radioed in to the team that he had a left rear tire going down. He would finish the race in ninth. He is now fifth in the chase for the 2013 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship and only seven points out of the top three.

“It was kind of a disappointing weekend,” said Pena. “I really had high hopes going into this weekend because of my road course racing background. It took a while to figure out the track because I had never been there.”

“I was really happy with qualifying 3rd. Our chances were looking good but I made a mistake going into turn 1 and lost some ground. Then we ended up getting two flat left rears under green which put us a lap down. We were able to bring the No. 16 NAPA Toyota Camry home in 9th after a long frustrating race.”

The NAPA team from BMR would like to thank NAPA Otawana and Minneapolis for their great support this weekend.

Next up for the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota team will be at Iowa Speedway for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East/West combination race and on the same weekend the teams will head to Lebanon I-44 Speedway on June 7th – 9th.

BMR PR