AVONDALE, Az. – Any NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) team worst nightmare during the West Coast Swing came true for Ray Black Jr. and his SS Green Light Racing (SSGLR) team during Friday’s second practice session for tomorrow afternoon’s Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200 at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway.
Black, driving the No. 07 Scuba Life Chevrolet made significant contact with the Turn 1 wall after an oil line ruptured sending a trail of fluid underneath his car, making him an unsettling passenger as his car uncontrollably careened towards the SAFER barrier wall.
“We had an oil line break at the beginning of practice and just went down into Turn 1, never turned, slicked up the tires and slammed into the wall,” said Black. “It was bad.”
Despite the setback of losing a solid race car during practice, Black, who advanced to a full-time XFINITY Series schedule from Trucks last season says his team was making progress on the race track before the incident.
“I thought we were making a lot of ground,” added Black. “We made a lot of changes and were getting faster and we were on old tires, so we didn’t have a lot of speed on paper, but on long runs we were really good.”
Quick work by the SSGLR team saw them swiftly change their primary car from Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway last week now becoming their primary car again for the fourth race of the season.
In final practice, Black said his car was loose, but turned the fastest lap of the weekend before ending up 27th quickest overall.
Of course, it’s no secret that a smaller team like SSGLR certainly face logistical challenges on getting an additional car to the western seaboard – and yes, overall presents more work for the team in itself, but Black praised his Bobby Dotter owned team for their efforts after the incident preparing the backup car – and for the tedious work that lies ahead.
“It is what it is,” says Black. “They’re tough. When knew that if we had any trouble, it would put us behind. We’ll fight through it and it will make us stronger, that’s for sure.”
Black told CATCHFENCE.com that the team has already sent their primary car from Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway from North Carolina to meet up with the team following Saturday’s race to be utilized as the primary car for Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway next weekend. Hopeful of a clean race Saturday, the team hopes to use their now Phoenix primary as a back-up for the XFINITY 300 on Mar. 19.
Entering his XFINITY Series debut at Phoenix, Black is 23rd in series standings on the heels of his career-best finish of 25th last weekend.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
