Playoff beards aren’t limited to stick-and-ball sports.
Blake Koch hopes to keep his “Chase beard” growing as the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase kicks off its Round of 8 in Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBC).
“When I said I was going to start this Chase beard, I didn’t know I was going to make it to the next round,” said Koch, a surprise competitor in the Round of 8, who advanced by producing an average finish of 12.3 in the first three Chase races. “It’s going to be like an eight-week beard.”
An underdog in every sense of the word, Koch’s single-car Kaulig Racing team, owned by entrepreneur Matt Kaulig, was created this offseason. Koch finished 12th in the regular season points, earning the final spot on the inaugural XFINITY Series Chase Grid.
“It was huge just to make the Chase,” Koch said. “After Chicago, I just felt a huge relief that we accomplished our goal, so going into the Chase, we kind of had nothing to lose because there are no expectations on me or our race team.”
Koch’s best finishes this season were eighth-place showings in the spring Richmond race and the fall Bristol contest. In five starts at Kansas, he has never finished better than 25th.
“It’s been able to pay off with some good, consistent finishes, but consistency, I don’t think, is what’s going to transfer into the final four,” Koch said after last Sunday’s Charlotte race. “I think we’re going to have to turn it up a notch. But I feel like we have. We had a pretty good car tonight and these last couple weeks we’ve been racing against cars we haven’t raced with all year, so I’m extremely proud of my team and proud of this series – making it so new teams can start up and be competitive like this is pretty cool.”
Koch’s success was not lost on the rest of the garage. Three-race winner Elliott Sadler praised Koch and the Kaulig Racing team following Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway where Koch advanced to the Round of 8 with a 12th-place finish.
“I don’t think you guys understand the kind of feat that Blake and those guys made,” Sadler said. “They were moving into their shop the week of Dover in May. To make the final eight. I think Blake and his guys’ start-up team kind of flew under the radar at the beginning of the season and got better and better and better. He and (crew chief) Chris (Rice) did a whale of a job in the first round. I think that’s definitely the story of the first round.”
Source: Staff Report / NASCAR Wire Service
