Drake Comes Away With 12th-Place Finish At VIR
• Nearly Nets Back-To-Back Top-10 Finishes In K&N East Road Races
ALTON, Va. (Aug. 16, 2014) – Nick Drake wrapped up his second straight week of road racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East with a 12th-place finish in the Biscuitville 125 at Virginia International Raceway on Saturday.
The 18-year-old series rookie – who a week ago came away with a 10th-place finish on the historic road course of Watkins Glen (New York) International – nearly had back-to-back top-10 finishes in his No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota, but dropped from sixth to 12th in a late-race incident at VIR.
Drake’s Bill McAnally Racing teammate, Cole Custer, saw his shot at a top-10 finish vanish when he encountered mechanical trouble while running ninth in his No. 00 NAPA AUTO PARTS/HAAS Automation entry. The race – won by Scott Heckert – was extended to 60 laps, with a green-white-checkered finish.
Drake, making his first start at the 2.25-mile Virginia track, started seventh on the grid. He slipped back in the early laps and battled throughout most of the race to get back into the top 10. He took advantage when some of the leaders got together on a Lap 47 restart and moved up to eighth. Drake continued his progress and was battling for fifth when contact from another car on Lap 54 dropped him to 13th and left him with a battered race car to coax to the finish.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming into the two road courses,” said Drake, who is transitioning this year from racing sprint cars on dirt tracks to competing in stock cars. “I’ve never done it before. Watkins Glen was probably the most fun race track I’ve experienced in a stock car and if we hadn’t lost second gear and blown the left front tire, we should have finished top five.
“VIR is very technical,” said the Mooresville, North Carolina driver. “I got faster each time on the race track and again should have had another top five. We just got taken out with about five laps to go. We just need to catch a break and some luck for this BMR team.”
After starting 10th, Custer moved up as far as seventh before being sidelined on Lap 42, resulting in an 18th-place finish.
Drake remains second in the standings for the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award and is ninth in the overall championship standings. He has one pole, three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 14 series starts this season – with a career-best finish of second.
Custer, 16, of Ladera Ranch, California, was making his sixth series start of the year on Saturday. He is competing in select events in the East and West divisions of the K&N Pro Series this year, while running a limited schedule in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
A member of the NASCAR Next program that spotlights NASCAR’s rising stars – he has three wins, two poles, seven top five and eight top 10s in 20 career starts overall in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
Saturday’s race, the 14th of a 16-race schedule, marked the third of three consecutive weeks of racing for K&N East. The next event on the series schedule is at Greenville (South Carolina) Pickens Speedway on Sept. 6.