Bristol would probably be the last place you would expect to see guys like Jeremy Clements, Gray Gaulding and Timmy Hill finishing inside the top-10, but truth be told, Bristol is an equalizer for teams.
For Jeremy Clements and his family-owned No. 51 team, it was his best finish of the year so far in the 2019 Xfinity Series season. It has been a year of ups and downs for the team but Friday night at Bristol, they finished fourth. Clements, however, wanted a little more at the end.
“Yeah, it was a decent effort,” Clements told PRN Radio. “We started off super tight and faded pretty good there at the start. Got our car a lot better as we went. Just couldn’t get the tightness out like I needed it to through the center. Our RepairableVehicles.com Chevrolet and fast Xfinity internet, we had a good run. Got moved on the last lap by the 23 (Nemechek), unfortunately. That sucks, I was wanting that top three, but oh well. Looking forward to going to Road America, ready to kick their ass there and ready to win again. Let’s do it!”
Clements finished 10th in Stage 2 and earned his first top-five of the season.
For Gray Gaulding and the No. 08 Bobby Dotter team, they wound up sixth tonight after a great qualifying effort of 13th. Gaulding finished eighth in Stage 1 while not receiving any stage finish points in Stage 2. Still, it was a solid night for the team.
“I didn’t leave nothing out there, that’s for sure,” Gaulding said to PRN Radio. “I muscled it all night long. My guys gave me a great car. Throughout the race, we just kept working on it to get better and better, just trying to keep track position which was key tonight. So good fight. We’re going to celebrate this one. I mean, we’re little guys here. To finish sixth at Bristol at the night race in front of all these great fans is a special night.”
This was Gaulding third top-10 finish of the 2019 Xfinity Series season.
A fan favorite in the Xfinity Series, Timmy Hill, who was driving the No 61 Carl Long Toyota with support from Hattori Racing, finished seventh tonight at Bristol. It was Hill’s best finish of his career.
“This was a very exciting weekend for us,” Hill said to PRN Radio. “We partnered with HRE, Toyota Tsusho came on board for this race, really excited for that. We wanted to put in a good run for those guys. During practice, I figured we had a good car, did really well in practice. Didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked, but we stayed patient throughout the race, really marched forward. These guys really prepared me a great car. Seventh place is my best finish in my career.”
“I wish we could have got one better if not get a top-five and I’m so pleased with these guys.”
