Drake Caps Off Visit To Langley With Another Top-10 Finish

• Consistent Finishes For Second Year Driver In K&N Pro Series East

HAMPTON, Va. (June 20, 2015) – Nick Drake capped off his visit to Langley Speedway for the Visit Hampton 175 on Saturday night with an eighth-place finish, netting him his fourth top-10 in six NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races this year.

The 19-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina driver – who is in his second season of driving the No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota for Bill McAnally Racing – managed to hang on in the closing laps despite handling issues.

Drake and his BMR team came into the event looking to improve on their short track program.

“We were trying things all day,” Drake said. “Our short track setup has been off just a bit.”

Their work seemed to pay off, with their NAPA Toyota turning the second quickest time in the first practice session and then qualifying fourth fastest. The gains they made in practice didn’t pay off in the race, however, as the handling went away during nearly 100 consecutive laps of green flag racing, Drake said.

“When it went green that long, it just wore our stuff out more than everybody else,” he said. “We were kind of hanging on at that point. We had held our own in fourth for over half the race, but I knew when there was a yellow, the cars behind us were handling a little better.”

Drake slipped to fifth on Lap 151 and then faded in the final 20 laps to come across the finish line in eighth.

“Our short track set up is still a little off, but we gained on it today,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep working on it and we’ll get it where it needs to be. We’re not too far off. We’ll get it soon.”

Drake remains seventh in the championship standings, with six events complete on this year’s 14-race schedule.

The Visit Hampton 175 , which was won by William Byron, will be televised on NBCSN on June 25 at 6 p.m. ET. It marked the fifth series visit to Langley.

The next event on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule is the NAPA AUTO PARTS 150 at Columbus (Ohio) Motor Speedway on July 4.