AUSTIN, TX: Jordan Anderson has had to wait more than three months to put his No. 31 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet Camaro on track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
Despite showing promise with practice speed at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February, Mother Nature ruined Anderson’s dreams of launching a full-time Xfinity Series program in the season-opener in February after qualifying was canceled.
Being a new team and no owner points to fall back on, Anderson and others found themselves on the sidelines and being forced to wait nearly 100 days before having a second chance to redeem themselves in an event weekend that featured practice, qualifying and the race.
With a concerted plan to make their debuts in the highly anticipated Circuit of the Americas weekend in Austin, Texas – Anderson hired former Xfinity Series champion and road course sensation Tyler Reddick to wheel his No. 31 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet with the objective to gain as many owner points as possible.
On Saturday, Anderson started that journey with a huge exclamation point!
Showcasing impressive speed with Reddick during practice Friday afternoon in the dry, the team backed it up Saturday morning in the wet with the nine-time Xfinity Series winner qualifying the No. 31 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet fifth.
The strong weekend continued for the inaugural event.
In Stage 1, Reddick navigating a soaked 20-turn road course was able to keep his race car well inside the top-10 – but when others began playing strategy moves late in the stage, the Arthur Haire-led team played a strategy of their own keeping Reddick out on the track and picking up second at the stage 1 finish and collecting nine valuable owner points along the way.
The team could not afford to play the same strategy in Stage 2, but keeping a solid pace and hovering inside the top-10, Reddick pitted late in Stage 2 with the leaders and found himself in a good place for the short run to the finish.
Restarting the race with 13 laps to go, Reddick methodically worked his way forward and entered the top-10 approaching 10 laps to go.
Keeping the steering wheel pointed straight and avoiding the chaos of an intense battle between Riley Herbst and Myatt Snider – Reddick muscled his car to eighth at the checkered flag picking up 29 additional owner points for their efforts.
“Well, that was a hot race today, my sunburn didn’t really help with a lot of it, but we were able to bring home our Bommarito Automotive Chevy home eighth and get a really good points day in our Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet,” said Reddick.
“It was a blast to drive this car. I’m really thankful to Jordan, Mr. Bommarito and everyone at Jordan Anderson Racing for this opportunity and to get some extra laps for myself for tomorrow and to be able to put a fight up like this with a fun group of individuals that are a part of this team.
With three events featuring qualifying in the next month, Anderson hopes to soar his team into the top-40 in the Xfinity Series owner standings guaranteeing them a spot on the starting grid for upcoming non-qualifying races.
The series heads to Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway next weekend where they will embrace another event weekend of practice, qualifying and racing. The team is 41st overall, 21 points behind Carl Long’s No. 13 car and Reddick will again handle the driving duties.
With another good run next Saturday afternoon – overtaking the Business Motorsports Management team is definitely doable and Reddick is focused on a repeat of Saturday’s Pit Boss 250.
“We’ll take this momentum and go into Charlotte on the Xfinity side next week and try and get some more points for Jordan and his team and just keep plugging away,” added Reddick. “38 (points) is a good start but we still gonna try and continue to get some points, so we’ll look forward to Charlotte.”
Top 10!! Amazing drive by @TylerReddick and so proud of our whole team for never giving up… Thank you to everyone that was a part of this!!!! pic.twitter.com/M68qw7HhHH
— Jordan Anderson (@j66anderson) May 22, 2021
Great job today 👊🏼👊🏼👊🏼 https://t.co/5toAZET547
— Jordan Anderson (@j66anderson) May 23, 2021
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
