Friday Nationwide Notebook:
Chase Elliott Escapes Eventful Bristol With Third-Place Finish:
NASCAR Nationwide Series point’s leader Chase Elliott escaped Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Friday night with his 10th top-five finish of the season, but the driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro nearly threw his night away three laps into the 300-lap race.
After getting loose and tagging the Turn 4 wall, Elliott dropped in the running order, but as the Food City 300 pressed on, his JR Motorsports machine came to life and following the competition caution on Lap 60, Elliott found himself contending for the lead.
The Dawsonville, Georgia native edged Elliott Sadler for the lead on Lap 69, but gave it back to Sadler a lap later. After 21 laps, Elliott shoved his Chevrolet back into the top spot and led seven laps before Sadler challenged for the lead on Lap 98, before the 19-year old took command for a whopping 51 laps.
Despite some late-race dominance from Sprint Cup drivers Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson mixed in with Chevrolet teammate Ty Dillon, Elliott found himself in position to capitalize on his ninth place spring Bristol finish.
“Definitely not too bad,” said Elliott. “We kinda fired off the race there really, really, really, really lose about wrecked half the field there about Lap 3 and I don’t know if that damage hurt us from there on out, but we really fought a loose racecar the rest of the night.”
He added, “I’m not disappointed by any means, but certainly room for improvement.”
Leaving Bristol, Elliott, the three-time winner this season maintains a 13-point lead over teammate Regan Smith.
James Buescher Earns Season Best At Bristol:
It’s hard to believe that entering the final leg of the summer stretch of the NASCAR Nationwide Series circuit that James Buescher and RAB Racing scored their best finish of the season in Friday night’s Food City 300.
“This is our best finish of the year a ninth-place finish,” said Buescher. “This shows some improvement, Matt (Lucas, crew chief) and I are starting to get our cars to drive the way I need them to. We still seem to be lacking, we gained speed the last couple weeks, even though it’s been on road courses, we’ve gained some speed at the race track. Still just need some more, but our Rheem Toyota was solid tonight. We went back and forth on adjustments and we’d make an adjustment then take it back out and try something else and take it back out and try something else.
“Ended up half of an adjustment away from where we started the race. I think actually just a tire pressure adjustment away from where we started the race. I think we guessed it pretty good at the start and we fought hard all night. We had to overcome some strategy when we were towards the back when that first caution came out. If we would have come and got tires and done fuel only on the competition caution then we could have got some track position early, but we had to earn it the hard way at the end and those restarts worked out to our advantage. Thought I was going to lose a couple spots and the caution came out there at the end. It was definitely a top-groove, one-lane race track and impossible to pass, but we were able to climb up from around 20th to ninth. Solid night and we’ll move on to Atlanta and see if we can’t improve on it.”
Buescher, driver of the No. 99 Rheem Toyota Camry hadn’t finished higher than 10th prior to the 23rd race of the season, but utilizing some strategy and having a good racecar, Buescher netted a ninth place finish in “Thunder Valley,” a personal best in five starts at the 0.533-mile concrete oval.
After qualifying a solid 16th, Buescher was able to maintain his presence on the lead lap – until the field began to stretch out and the leaders overtaking him during that run. During a late yellow, when everyone else elected to pit, Buescher chose to stay out and take the waive-around which put his team back on the lead lap.
Luckily shortly after the impending restart, the caution flag waived again. And even though Buescher had to make a trip to pit road for routine service, over the final section of the race, the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion was able to tackle his way through the field to deliver just his second top-10 finish of the season.
Undoubtedly, it’s been a season mixed with frustration and bad luck for the RAB Racing with Brack Maggard team. But now with 10 races left in the schedule, the team has a finish to build on with hopes that momentum will carry the Concord, North Carolina-based track into some late season consistency.
Buescher maintains 10th in the championship standings, 11 points behind ninth place competitor Ryan Reed.
Jeffrey Earnhardt Earns Career-Best Finish In Nationwide At Bristol:
Finally, Jeffrey Earnhardt had a good night.
“It was a good night for us,” said Earnhardt. “We had a good car from the start of the race and we just kept getting lucky. We did the best with the situation, we felt like we could be better, but know we know. We were looking for a top-10 finish. Everything (just) played into our favor, pit strategy and starting on the outside.
“We were lucky to keep some of the good cars behind us, because it was such a one-groove racetrack, It was just a good night.”
“We did the best with the situation, everything played into our favor, pit strategy. We were fortunate enough to have this good night and keep some of the good cars behind us because it was such a one-groove racetrack. We’ve been in a slump for the last few races, but now I think we’re out and we can build on this for Atlanta next weekend. I’m just really proud.”
The Mooresville, North Carolina native impressed immensely in the No. 4 Flex Shot Chevrolet Camaro for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller Friday night with a stellar lead-lap 12th place finish.
In a year where Earnhardt has been plagued by mechanical failures, accidents and a broken collarbone, Earnhardt never lost a lap under green flag conditions on Friday night and awarded his small underfunded team with a season-best 12th place finish in the Food City 300.
It’s a victory of sorts for Earnhardt and the No. 4 team led by veteran crew chief Gary Cogswell.
Throughout the season, JD Motorsports with Gary Keller’s primary car with Landon Cassill at the helm has received the attention and accolades for commendable performance, but on Friday night, the shoe was on the other foot.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeffrey’s uncle even took to Twitter on Friday night to congratulate his nephew with the simple praise: “Proud as hell of you @JEarnhardt1.”
“That meant a lot to me,” said Earnhardt of the tweet from Jr. “He came up to me after the race and told me how proud he was of me. Meant a lot. It really did.”
Before Friday night’s race, Earnhardt’s best finish was 16th at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway twice in 2013 and 2014.
Milka Duno Fails To Qualify For Nationwide Series Debut:
Milka Duno failed to qualify for her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on Friday afternoon at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
The Caracas, Venezuela native turned 48 laps in her No. 29 CanTV Toyota Camry to try and earn one of the 40 starting positions for the Food City 300, but she fell short. Duno only managed a time of 16.461 seconds at 116.566 miles per hour placing her last in time trails.
“The track changed, it was a little hotter today and at the beginning at the start of qualifying, I had a little bit of tight in the middle of corner and I was losing too much of the car there,” offered Duno. “We come in and made changes the car was a little better. We come in again, the car was better, but at the end, no good tires, because after 40 laps the tires are gone. I was doing the quickest times at the end with the improvement in the car, but it was for two-tenths that I lost to be in, just two tenths, but it was two tenths.”
Despite missing the show, Duno remained on the grounds of Bristol Motor Speedway Friday night and sat on the pit box of her RAB Racing with Brack Maggard teammate James Buescher to inhale as much input as she could.
Duno and her team are tentatively scheduled to try again next month at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
