KANSAS CITY, Kansas – Ryan Sieg thought he would end Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway with another top-15 finish to his NASCAR XFINITY Series season.
Then came a caution with five laps to go.
Game changer.
The eighth yellow flag of the day proved to be the saving grace for the RSS Racing driver, who was able to rocket from his 13th place restarting position to finish eighth, earning his first top-10 finish of the season.
“Finally, a top-10,” said Sieg. “The car was good all day, we were just glad the caution came out at the end of the day, so we could put some tires on it and have a shot at maybe a top-10. The car was fast all day, we just battled kinda all over the place at points of the race with the handling. We were tight off Turn 2 and loose everywhere else. We never gave up.
“I knew I had to hold it wide open for three laps on that last restart,” he added. “I wasn’t sure how the car would handle on older tires, especially on 30-lap cold tires, but it worked. I got a really good run off Turn 1 and Turn 2 on the restart and was able check out from them. The game changer for us was definitely the tires.”
The performance for the Georgia based team could be considered a victory, amongst a season full of constant consistency and speed, but lacked a top-10 finish.
No more.
Sieg’s third career top-10 finish in 67 series start was a good way to end a 16-race stretch for the NASCAR XFINITY Series dating back to Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in July. It also marked the first race where the 28-year-old secured a top-10 run on a non-plate track.
“This was our first top-10 finish outside of a speedway,” sounded Sieg. “That’s a big deal for us. We’ve run pretty good all season long, just need everything to come together to get a top-10. To pull that off outside of a speedway race really does feel like a win for us.”
During the stretch, Sieg achieved seven top-15 finishes and 12 top-20 runs. The solid statistics have helped the Tucker, Georgia native maintain 12th in the championship standings with three races remaining. Just one point separates Sieg from Jeremy Clements in 11th, both independent teams on the tour.
“Hopefully, this race puts us in the spotlight a little more,” Sieg said. “We’re working hard on sponsorship for this year and next. Hopefully this helps. We’re more focused on next year right now at this point, but we’re hoping a good run like this will help us with that.”
Not only does the finish on Saturday give Sieg and his team some much welcomed confidence heading into the two-week break, but also gives them ammunition towards finalizing sponsorship for the 2016 season.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series returns at Texas Motor Speedway on November 7, where Sieg has a best finish of 17th in his debut at the 1.5-mile track in 2014.
“I like Texas. We had a good car the first time we went there. We ran decent in the spring, but we’ve learned so much since then. “We always run good there. We’ve improved our program a lot and I’m excited to go back and see what we can do with what we know.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
