Immediately following Saturday’s Alsco 300, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East took to Bristol’s surface for a 150-lap slugfest which saw the race dominated by one driver who doesn’t even have his driver’s license.
Sam Mayer put a whooping on the field, leading all 150 laps in his No. 21 Chevrolet Accessories Chevrolet for GMS Racing – earning his first series’ victory in his eighth series’ start and inherited the points lead at the same time.
While Mayer rightfully deserved the opportunity to be in the spotlight, other drivers sparked interest for one reason or another in Thunder Valley.
• Chase Cabre: Escaping the Lap 1 carnage that involved his teammate Ruben Garcia Jr., Cabre and the rest of the field had nothing for Mayer but the 22-year-old from Tampa, Fla. earned his eighth career top-five finish and a solid rebound after a disastrous start at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway in February.
• Brandon McReynolds: Often calling himself the “old guy” on the K&N East tour, Brandon McReynolds let his veteran experience play into his hands-on Saturday at Bristol. Needing a late restart to make quick work of Cabe, McReynolds fast start to 2019 put his team in a precarious position of having to decide whether to continue with a partial K&N schedule or bite the bullet and commit towards a championship effort with McReynolds third in points after two races.
• Drew Dollar: Inhaling his Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway debut for the first time, Drew Dollar led the DGR-brigade on Saturday. Dollar qualified his No. 54 Dollar Concrete Construction Toyota eighth but used a good handling car and coaching from pit road to earn him a career-best K&N finish after finishing ninth at New Smyrna in February.
Spencer Davis: Sparking life back into Mark Rette’s K&N team, Davis had hoped that newer tires would play to his benefit on Saturday afternoon – but in theory, it only helped the No. 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford team with a position or two when it was all said and done.
Davis and Rette continue to build chemistry and improve their race cars and quickly could become a player in the K&N East championship after jumping two spots in points to sixth after two races.
• Colin Garrett: It appears that their technical alliance with Rette Jones Racing paid off for Sam Hunt Racing in Thunder Valley. The popular driver from Virginia didn’t qualify strong on Friday night and didn’t have the best No. 18 Toyota Camry during the early stages of the race – but as the race laid out, Garrett’s car came to life and the driver maneuvered back-to-back top-10 finishes to open the 2019 season.
• Mason Diaz: With bigger things expected on the horizon for Mason Diaz, the Manassas, Va. native earned a strong eighth-place finish despite battling a wicked loose race car throughout the race’s 150-laps. Despite starting deep in the field, Diaz let the race play into his hands, pushed aggression when needed and capitalized on opportunities ahead of him.
With plans to run the full K&N East championship in 2019, the team’s performance on Saturday was a good boost in points propelling the likable driver inside the top-10 heading into spring break.
Diaz won’t be idle though as he’s scheduled to make the first of his several NASCAR Xfinity Series starts with Brandonbilt Motorsports next weekend at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
• Raphael Lessard: The Canadian standout took on Bristol and won. Well, kind of. Struggling with the handling of his No. 50 Toyota Camry for Bill McAnally Racing, Lessard had to muscle from the back to the front on multiple occasions and even used his bumper on his teammates Brittney Zamora and Hailie Deegan to move into the top-10 and stayed there.
Lessard used Saturday’s K&N East Series race to get more experience around Thunder Valley in preparation for his NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series start at Bristol in August for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
• Tanner Gray: The NHRA standout turned stock car rookie is still transitioning through a learning curve. While qualifying on the outside pole at Bristol, Gray was collected in an early accident and struggled to recover with an ill-handling race car.
Resilient work, however, by his DGR-CROSLEY crew kept Gray focused and calm and saw him climb nine positions over the race’s 150 laps to earn his first K&N Pro Series East top-10 run.
Gray will switch into ARCA mode next weekend as he’ll take on Salem (Ind.) Speedway in hunt for his first career stock car victory.
• Max McLaughlin: For a while, it looked like Max McLaughlin would be able to carry Hattori Racing Enterprises to a top-10 finish at Bristol, but a loose race car and a slap with the frontstretch wall late in the race saw McLaughlin, the son of former NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Mike McLaughlin plummet through the field and settle in 13th.
While the finish wasn’t what either the team or driver hoped, McLaughlin seems to be finding his groove quickly in his movement from dirt to asphalt with less than just six starts on anything with four wheels and pavement racing.
Running for the K&N East championship in 2019, the reigning Truck Series championship team looks to stamp their placement in a double-dose of action at South Boston (Va.) Speedway in May.
• Hailie Deegan: The two-time K&N West Series winner couldn’t wait to get out of Bristol. After losing her engine on Friday in the waning moments of final practice, she didn’t get an opportunity to participate in time trials and even lost her crew chief Kevin Reed Jr. who was ejected from the facility after a spat with a NASCAR official.
In the race, well, her troubles continued. After starting in the rear, she marched her way forward only to see her race end after colliding with teammate Brittney Zamora in traffic.
Overheating issues eventually put her out of the race and her Bristol misery.
• Riley Herbst: Welp, just ask Hannah Newhouse how she feels about Herbst after he was involved in a lap 1 altercation. ‘Enough said.
• Natalie Decker: Her rough start to 2019 continues. Decker said her brake pedal broke sparking the Lap 1 accident that collected her teammate Herbst and Gray along with Ruben Garcia Jr.
Decker will try again this time in ARCA competition at the end of the month at Talladega Superspeedway.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
