After a crazy weekend in Indianapolis Go Green Racing would head out west to the Sin City for the second and final time of the 2018 campaign. With the rain pushing the race in Indy to Monday it created a very short week for the NASCAR XFINITY Series. The haulers would park Friday morning and the weekend’s on track activity would get started with two practice sessions on Friday afternoon. Gase and the team would try to find the balance in the car all afternoon. At the end of the final practice on Friday evening they would make improvements but Gase’s final run he said that the Sparks Energy Inc Chevy was still a little too tight. He would end up with the 22nd fastest lap.
The team made some great improvements from final practice to qualifying as Gase would make the second round once again ending round one in 14th. He would put down two more laps and ultimately get Go Green Racing’s season best qualifying run. He would start Saturday’s DC Solar 300 from the 17th position.
After a great qualifying run earlier in the morning, the Go Green Racing team was confident that they would have another great run. That’s exactly what would transpire under the hot desert sun on Saturday afternoon.
Shortly after they would get the green for the DC Solar 300 the field would see its first caution of the afternoon. Under the caution Joey said that he was sliding everywhere on both ends during that short run. Once they went back to green they would remain under the green flag for the rest of the stage. As the long run progressed, Gase had reported that he free on entry and was tight center-off in turns three and four. With that in mind CC Donahue would call for a pressure change in the right rear, two rounds of wedge in the right rear, two down on the track bar, along with fresh tires, and fuel.
Just before the halfway mark through the second stage another caution would come out. During this caution CC Donahue asked Gase, “How’s your race car? Did those adjustments help?” Gase would reply “Now I’m my entry is good but I’m tight center-off on both ends.” He would battle through to the end of stage in the 21st position. Between stages Donahue would call for some packer out of the left front and two rounds out of the left rear to help Gase center-off.
Joey had been fighting most of the second stage one lap down and as the final stage had begun he put himself in position for the lucky dog. The odds seemed to be in his favor as a caution had come out for the #18 of Ryan Preece on the backstretch putting Gase back on the lead lap. During the caution he would bring to pit road for another wedge and tire pressure adjustment.
With just under 50 laps remaining in the 200 lap race another caution was drawn for the #01 of Vinnie Miller. Gase had said at the beginning of his run he was a little free but as the run progressed he started to get tight. Gase had fallen a lap down prior to the caution and at this point there were only 14 cars on the lead lap. He was just short of fuel to make it to the checkered but CC Donahue would count on another caution coming out. Therefore they would wave pit road to get a lap back and gain some track position. In doing so Gase would restart in 15th with only 20 laps to go.
It turns out that Donahue’s gamble would pay off as another caution had come out shortly after getting the green. This would give Gase a chance to bring it to the Sparks Energy team on pit road for a fresh set of tires and enough fuel to get to the end. There would be one more caution in the final 13 laps of the race but that wouldn’t stop Gase from collecting his second straight top 15 finish.
It was a perfect way to end a crazy week. It wasn’t easy by any means, but the crews hard work on an unscheduled short week had paid off. It will be another short week as the team will head to Richmond for a Friday night showdown under the lights.
Joey Gase PR
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