WHITT LEADS BK RACING TO CHECKERED FLAG, FINISHES 30TH AT CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
Bowman Finishes 35th, Truex Follows in the 42nd Position
MyAfibStory.com 400 | Chicagoland Speedway
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series | Race 27 of 36 | Sunday, September 14, 2014
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (September 15, 2014) – Cole Whitt led his BK Racing teammates to the checkered flag as he brought home a 30th-place finish in the No. 26 Iowa City Capital Partners Toyota Camry at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., on Sunday afternoon. Whitt was followed by Alex Bowman in the No. 23 Dr Pepper Toyota Camry who finished 35th, and Ryan Truex who finished 42nd in the No. 83 Burger King / Dr Pepper Toyota Camry.
Competing in his first Sprint Cup Series event at Chicagoland Speedway, Whitt rolled off 33rd for the 400-mile race on Sunday afternoon. With the handling of his car dialed in, Whitt worked with his crew to make just minor adjustments throughout the course of the race. The biggest challenge for the Iowa Capital City Partners team proved to be an issue with the fuel pickup, which caused Whitt to fall back on restarts before racing back through the pack during green-flag runs. Able to maintain his overall track position, Whitt crossed the finish line in the 30th position.
“Our Iowa City Capital Partners Toyota Camry was a strong car today,” commented Whitt. “Unfortunately we had some issues with the fuel pickup, which left us trying to fight back from every restart. We’re going to look into the issue with the fuel line to try and prevent that from happening again, but otherwise we were really happy with our car all day. The setup and handling were exactly what we needed, and we’re looking forward to doing this again next weekend in New Hampshire.”
Bowman drove the No. 23 Dr Pepper Toyota Camry in his first Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. Starting the 400-mile event from the 37th position, Bowman was able to pick up positions early in the event to be racing 32nd by lap 45. Fighting a loose racecar throughout the afternoon, Bowman worked closely with his Dr Pepper team to make adjustments and improve the handling of their Toyota Camry. Unfortunately, a pit miscue late in the race required Bowman to return to pit road during the final 30 laps. Without enough time to recover from the incident, Bowman crossed the finish line in the 35th position.
“We had a good car with our Dr Pepper Toyota Camry this afternoon,” commented Bowman. “We were steadily picking up positions and moving through the field, but we lost a lot of ground late in the day with a pit miscue. We had to come back down pit road, and at that point it was just too late to make up the lost ground. We’re working on our communication every week, getting better as a team and working on what we need in our cars. I’m confident that we’ll bounce back next weekend.”
Truex rolled off 31st in the No. 83 Burger King / Dr Pepper Toyota Camry for his first career Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. Fighting a loose racecar during the early laps, Truex worked with his team to devise a plan to adjust his car and improve its handling. As the race progressed, it seemed like luck just wouldn’t fall Truex’s way. In a race with few caution laps, teams looked to stretch their fuel as far as possible to minimize the time spent on pit road. Unfortunately, Truex and the Burger King / Dr Pepper team attempted to stretch it a bit to far, and instead Truex ran out of gas on the 1.5-mile track to bring out the caution flag. The caution flag waved again for the No. 83 machine when a broken wheel bearing sent Truex into the outside retaining wall. With considerable damage to the Burger King / Dr Pepper Camry, Truex was forced to retire from the event after just 184 laps and was credited with a 42nd-place finish.
“We just couldn’t catch a break today with our Burger King / Dr Pepper Toyota Camry,” commented Truex. “It seems like everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes you just have those days in racing. Our car was getting better with each adjustment and we had time to recover from running out of fuel, but once we broke the wheel bearing there wasn’t anything we could do. Now we’ll just focus on the task in front of us and we’ll get ready for New Hampshire next weekend.”
Next weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will revisit New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the second time this season. FOX Sports 1 will air practice (12 p.m. EDT) and qualifying (4:30 p.m. EDT) on Friday, September 19. Coverage will continue on Saturday morning with two additional practice sessions on FOX Sports 1 at 9 a.m. EDT and 11:30 a.m. EDT. The Sylvania 300 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be broadcast on ESPN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, September 21. Fans can visit BKRacing.com, or follow the team on Facebook (facebook.com/BKRacing2383) or twitter (@BKRacing_2383) for the latest news and updates.
