Garcia Gains Ground in Standings with 13th-Place at IRP
FINISH: 13th
Start: 7th
Laps Led: 0
NCTS Point Standings Position: 14th
Jake Garcia continued his string of strong performances with a consistent effort and a 13th-place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) on Friday night. The driver of the No. 35 Quanta Services Chevrolet Silverado RST ran as high as fifth and notched his track-best finish in two starts at IRP. His 10th top-15 result of the season and 10th-most points earned (30) advanced him one position in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings to 14th after 17 events.
Garcia continued his stout qualifying efforts by posting a lap of 22.99 seconds for his third-straight qualifying effort of 12th or better. When the green flag dropped, Garcia escaped a three-wide scrum in the opening laps and climbed to sixth. He displayed exceptional long run speed through the first 60-lap stage and cracked the top five on lap 47. He earned six points on lap 60 by running in the fifth position.
A hiccup on a four-tire pit stop under caution put Garcia 14th for the restart on lap 71 to begin the event’s second segment. The balance on Garcia’s Quanta Services entry faded to be tight in the center and loose on corner exit and kept him in the 17th position at the end of Stage 2 on lap 120. Crew chief Mark Hillman and the MHR team armed Garcia with four fresh tires, fuel, and chassis adjustments to improve the handling during the ensuing stage caution.
Garcia restarted 15th on lap 128 and went to work over the final 73 circuits. He ran as high as 11th after a restart on lap 141 and waged war in heavy traffic for position during the final 60 laps. Despite running 16th after the race’s final restart on lap 149, Garcia strung consistent laps together and marched his way through dense traffic. He continued to advance forward in the waning laps and took the 13th position on lap 195. He took the checkered flag in 13th to record his best finish at IRP in his second start.
Jake Garcia Quote:
“We had a really fast Quanta Services Chevrolet at times throughout the night. We fired off really well and were a top-five truck in the first stage. I thought we had good long run speed to start, but we lost a little bit of our balance back there in traffic in the second stage. We worked on the balance to get it better on the last stop and managed to go forward on the last run. We would have liked have a better finish with how our truck started, but it’s good to have speed in our Chevrolets and we’ll move on to Milwaukee in a couple weeks.”