In what has been a strong weekend for Alex Tagliani in the NASCAR Pinty Series, he was ready to test his skills in quite possibly his best shot to win the Truck Series race driving the famed No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Tundra.
The Canadian had a decent qualifying starting spot of fourth and remained consistent throughout the race. He finished 13th in Stage 1 after making a pit stop late for track position and finished eighth in Stage 2. While Tagliani did not get to lead a lap, he was up front on the final restart with Brett Moffitt. The KBM driver tried to catch Moffitt but he ran out of time. He would wind up second, Tagliani’s best Truck Series finish ever.
“It’s difficult because you never know if it’s going to go green all the way, as you give up too much distance and there’s no way with the level of competition you can make it up,” Tagliani said to MRN Radio. “It was a pleasure to work with KBM, the whole 51 crew. Thanks to CanTORQUE/Spectra Premium/Rona. The engine was running cool, our RAD in the trucks today.”
“We had a lot of fun, we were just missing a little bit on the front end. It was a bit tight everywhere. So we made some really good changes and increase the competition on the truck, but not enough for the 24 (Moffitt) today.”
Ben Rhodes and his No. 99 ThorSport Racing team used pit strategy during the Chevy Silverado 250 to finish third.
“We had a solid F-150 but we were just lacking in some areas,” Rhodes told MRN Radio. “You know, Tagliani was really, really fast. Moffitt had the best of us today so we’ll go back and do our homework, but really happy to give our Havoline Ford a third-place finish. I think this would be their fifth race coming back and really excited to have them on board.”
With Rhodes not being in the playoffs, he can now focus on winning and perhaps learning something for next years Playoffs.
“It’s pretty much going after wins,” Rhodes added to MRN Radio. “It’s just trying to outdo people on strategy, trying to get ourselves track position the best we can and make it easiest on me as possible. So far, my crew has been doing an awesome job, the crew chief and engineer have been calling awesome races. Really proud of our efforts on that.”
The top-five finish was Rhodes sixth of the season. He also led once for nine laps.
