With a 30-year stint of NASCAR Racing at Lucas Oil Raceway apparently coming to an end, Eric McClure and the TriStar Motorsports team wanted to not only earn a career-best finish at the speedway, but also continue to progress in the NASCAR point standings. Even though the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet was primarily tight in the center of the turns throughout the 200-lap event, McClure was able to advance from a career-high starting position at the speedway (25th) to finish the Kroger 200 in the 21st position.
“I’m relatively ok with the way we finished tonight. We almost had a top 20 finish, but we were beaten by just a little bit at the line after trying to get another spot. We were tight the majority of the race, but the guys worked hard to make changes to the car and in the last part of the race it was getting to where we needed it. We didn’t qualify where I thought we could have and with the way track position is anymore we just got too far behind too early. We are having some respectable runs right now; we just need to keep working at it and put everything together all at once and capitalize on it.”
McClure took the green flag for the final time at Lucas Oil Raceway from the 25th position. Slipping three positions by lap six, McClure quickly reported “the car is way too tight in the center of the turns and I can’t get it to drive off straight.” After utilizing the first caution period on lap 47 to bring the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet to pit road for four fresh tires with an air-pressure adjustment, a track-bar adjustment, and fuel, the team was scored in the 27th position on the lap 51 restart.
As the race progressed under green conditions, McClure was able to maintain the 27th position despite the car continuing to show tight handling conditions in the center of the turns. When the event’s second caution flag was displayed on lap 114 for debris, the team once again utilized this period to bring the car to pit road for four tires with another air-pressure adjustment, wedge and track-bar adjustments and fuel. After a quick stop by the Hefty Racing™ team, McClure was able to restart in the 25th position on lap 120.
Over the next forty laps the handling on the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ seemed to show improvement, which allowed the Virginia driver to run faster lap times and advance to the 24th position. When the event’s third caution flag was displayed on lap 174 for a multi-car accident, McClure and crew chief Gary Cogswell began devising a strategy to stay on track and receive the “wave around” which could potentially place them in the top-20 in the running order. However, they were not able to carry out the plan as a lead lap car that was positioned in front of them remained on track and, as a result, the No. 14 came down pit road for tires and additional chassis adjustments. When the race resumed on lap 183, the Hefty Racing® team was scored in the 23rd position.
In the final 17 laps, the Kroger 200 saw two additional cautions, one of which forced a green-white-checkered (GWC) finish. As the field was coming to the checkered flag, McClure, who was running in the 20th position, went low to attempt to pass the No.7 car for position. Unfortunately, the car became too loose on exit allowing the No. 81 to barely nudge past him at the finish line. As a result, the Hefty Racing® team was credited with a 21st-place finish. Although the driver’s sights were set on a top-20 finish, the finish earned was a career-high at Lucas Oil Raceway.
With the result, TriStar Motorsports owner Mark Smith advanced two positions (27th) in NASCAR Owner Standings.
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