Drake Sees Chance For Bristol Top-Five Slip Away
• See-Saw Day In NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 18, 2015) – Nick Drake appeared to be headed for another great finish in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East on Saturday, as he made an early charge into the top five with the No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota at Bristol (Tennessee) Motor Speedway.
However, a handling issue in the second half of the Pittlite 125 left the 19-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina, to ultimately finish 13th.
Drake, who started 10th on the grid based on his solid lap in qualifying on Thursday, had a see-saw day on Saturday. He quickly made his way forward in the Bill McAnally Racing NAPA Toyota and was sixth by Lap 6. He moved into the top five a few laps later.
Drake fell back on a restart after the first of six cautions, losing multiple positions. He worked his way back to sixth by the midway point of the race, then faded in the late stages of the race as he battled tight conditions with his race car.
“The NAPA Toyota was good for about the first 30 laps, then it kind of went away,” Drake said. “We got into the top five early and ran in the top 10 most of the race and just slowly faded.”
“At the halfway break, we made a bad call and it just got a little bit worse,” he said. “We kept slowly falling back at the end. And we could never catch a break on restarts.”
The BMR NAPA Toyota came away with some battle scars after racing on the tight, steeply-banked half-mile oval.
“The car’s a little banged up,” Drake said. “We got into the outside wall a few times from being too tight. We raced hard, we just weren’t where we needed to be.”
Drake, in his second season in the series, is tied for fifth in the championship standings – with two top-10 finishes in three starts this season.
The Pittlite 125, won by Kyle Benjamin, will be televised on NBCSN on April 23. It was the fourth series race hosted by the Bristol track.
The next event on the series schedule is the Casey’s General Store 150 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East-West combination race at Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa on May 16.