A Season Best Finish for McClure at Chicagoland Speedway

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In: Xfinity Series News

Eric McClure and the Hefty Racing® team utilized a solid racecar, a timely caution and pit strategy to earn an 18th-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night.  The finish, which came at the “home track” of the Hefty® brand, based in nearby Lake Forest, IL, was not only the driver’s career-best result at the track but was the team’s highest finish of the season.  As a result, McClure maintained the 20th position in NASCAR Driver Standings, while TriStar Motorsports owner Mark Smith propelled two positions in NASCAR Owner Standings to 27th.

“I can’t say enough about this race team.  We struggled just a bit in practice but Gary (Cogswell, crew chief) made positive changes for the race. The guys worked hard extremely hard this weekend, pit stops were good and we put ourselves in position for the breaks to come our way.  Jeff Green was a tremendous help to the team, both in practice and as a spotter.  We’ve had good cars this year, with a lot of bad luck, but a finish like this is something we all needed.  For this to come in front of a number of our supporters is icing on the cake.  Hopefully, this will give us some momentum going forward.  I’m pretty excited about it.”

Inclement weather again forced the cancellation of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.  As the field was set per the NASCAR rule book, McClure lined up 27th on the starting grid.  When a scheduled competition caution flag waved on lap 25 McClure, who was running in the 26th position, headed to pit road for the first stop of the event.  Hoping to pacify the “loose on entry and tight in the center” handling characteristics of the No. 14 Impala, the call was made for four fresh tires with a small adjustment of air pressure, and fuel.  After a quick stop by the Hefty Racing® team, the team was scored in the 22nd position on the lap 30 restart.

Over the next 30 laps, the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet continued to be show a tight characteristic so, when the event’s second caution flag waved on lap 61, McClure came to pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments.  Following another quick stop from the Hefty Racing® crew the TriStar Motorsports team was scored in the 20th position.  Unfortunately, on the lap 66 restart the field “stacked up” in front of McClure, resulting in the No. 14 machine getting hit from behind and forced out of line, which caused the team to lose four positions in the running order.  After getting back in the preferred racing line the team was able to maintain the 24th position until green flag pit stops began on lap 111.  Hoping to gamble for a caution, Cogswell made the decision to stay on the track as long as possible and with just five laps before needing fuel the decision paid dividends as the event’s third caution flag waved.  After visiting pit road for fuel and adjustments to air pressure, McClure restarted the event in the 16th position.

When the event’s fourth caution flag waved on lap 139, Cogswell once again called the No. 14 Chevrolet to pit road for four tires, fuel, and a track-bar adjustment as McClure had reported that the car’s handling had suddenly become “loose.”  Following the service, NASCAR informed the team that McClure was too fast on pit road and would have to serve a penalty by resuming the race from the tail end of the longest line of cars.  As a result, Cogswell decided to top off the fuel tank and the team was scored in the 21st position when the race resumed on lap 142.

This decision would also prove critical as the event would run under green flag conditions for the remainder of the race.  The cars that had taken the “wave around” during the previous caution began hitting pit road for fuel on lap 186, with a handful of the leaders coming to pit road on lap 188.  With enough fuel to complete the distance, the team decided to not bring the car to pit road during the final laps and, as a result, the Hefty Racing® team was able to score an 18th-place finish.

The NASCAR Nationwide Series returns to action on Saturday, June 18 at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

TriStar Motorsports PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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