JOLIET, Ill. – While many of the storylines from Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway are rightfully spotlighted on the playoff Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers, Landon Cassill certainly tried to make a storyline of his own.
The Front Row Motorsports driver had a solid day on Sunday and out-performed three playoff teams in the process.
After qualifying 27th on Friday afternoon, the team came to play in the 27th race of the season, as Cassill maintained a presence on the lead-lap through Stage 1 and utilized the opportunity for the wave around at the end of Stage 2 to keep his No. 34 CSX Play It Safe team in the mix.
Armed with a well-balanced car and often underrated driver, Cassill took advantage of a quick caution on Lap 169 to pit for much-needed tires and fuel to carry him through most of the race’s final stage.
After being lapped by eventual race winner Martin Truex Jr., the caution waved a short time later. Hoping luck would strike twice in the same day, crew chief Seth Barbour elected to keep Cassill on the track and take the wave around to lineup at the tail end of the field.
Unfortunately, after restarting 15th, the caution the team hope would come never came and Cassill had to pit at Lap 236 for tires and fuel.
The gamble cost the team two laps on pit road, but Cassill hung onto a 20th place finish, his second top-20 of the year and first since a 19th at Daytona International Speedway in July.
“We had a great car, with tremendous driver off Turn 2,” said Cassill. “It kept me from building loose on long runs. Seth called a great as well, and took the wave around at the perfect time after stage 2. That gave me the track position I needed.”
Despite pitting late and ruining an opportunity for the team’s best effort of 2017, Cassill still had every reason to be proud of the team’s efforts.
“It’s great,” he said. “I feel like this is the showing we’ve been capable of all year, but have had too many unfortunate events get in the way of our good finishes. Hopefully, this is how we finish out the year.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
