McClure Posts 29th-place Finish at MIS

Coming off a season-best finish of 18th at Chicagoland Speedway, the Hefty Racing® team headed to the “Irish Hills” of Michigan in hopes of building additional momentum for the season’s summer months.  Starting the event from the 33rd position, the team ran as high as 20th during a round of green flag pit stops before coming home in the 29th position.  Despite the finish, McClure advanced two positions to 18th in NASCAR Driver Standings.

“I’m really frustrated with the way we ran today, especially the way things went in Chicago.  The car was very loose in the beginning and we just couldn’t get a handle on it.  We’ve made good progress this year in a lot of areas and that makes you set expectations a bit higher, but days like this happen and we just have to push through them.  We have a good group and they’re working hard.  It’s all part of the process and we’ll keep after it.”

McClure started Saturday’s Alliance Truck Parts 250 from the 33rd position and was running in the 31st spot by lap six.  Reporting an extremely loose handling condition, McClure searched the various lanes around the two-mile D-shaped oval looking for more grip and car stability.  Finding that the high lane was most suitable for his Chevrolet, McClure was able to maintain the position until the leaders began making green flag pit stops on lap 31.  Hoping for a caution, the team decided to stay out on track as long as possible before hitting pit road on lap 42 for four tires with an air-pressure adjustment, a track-bar adjustment and fuel.  Following the service the team returned to the track two laps down to the race leader and in the 30th position.

After the stop was completed, the team was not only informed of a penalty for a crewman going over the pit wall too soon, but the event’s first caution flag waved.  Not in position to take the “wave around”  the call was made to once again bring the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet car to pit road to top off the fuel as the penalty was to resume the race from the end of the longest line of cars.  Once the race restarted on lap 47 the TriStar Motorsports team was scored in the 31st position where they remained until the event’s second caution flag waved for fluid on the track.  Crew Chief Gary Cogswell brought McClure to pit road once again for four scuffed tires and fuel and, following the service, the team was scored in the 29th position.

As the race progressed under green conditions the car’s handling characteristics became “tight through the center of turns one and two and tight through the center and snappy loose off of turns three and four.”  Continuing to run in the 29th position the event’s third and final caution flag waved on lap 93, which allowed McClure to come to pit road once again for four tires, fuel, and adjustments.  After a fast stop by the Hefty Racing® team McClure advanced one position to resume the race from the 28th position.

In the remaining 25 laps the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet had McClure reporting that the car was again “way too loose.”  Consequently, the team fell one position in the closing laps to finish the Alliance Truck Parts 250 from the 29th position.

TriStar Motorsports PR