Drake Notches Seventh-Place Finish At Greenville

• Second Top-10 Finish In First 2 K&N Pro Series East Races

GREENVILLE, S.C. (April 4, 2015) – Nick Drake overcame handling issues to notch a seventh-place finish in the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 at Greenville Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina on Saturday night.

With it, the driver of the Bill McAnally Racing No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota has top-10 finishes in the first two NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races this season.

Drake and his team struggled early in the day to find the fast set up at the historic half-mile track where he finished 16th a year ago and then fifth in last fall. They were 15th in practice and 16th in qualifying.

After slipping to 18th in the early stages of the race, Drake worked his way to 13th by the midway break. With fresh tires on his Toyota, he was able to charge to ninth just after the restart. He managed to gain two more positions before the checkered flag flew.

“To struggle as bad as we did at the beginning of the day and to make enough improvements to get into the top 10 and finish seventh was a good recovery,” said the 19-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina.

“At the beginning we were just way too free and then we got hung on the outside for several restarts,” he said. “We used all our stuff up pretty good. While everyone else was saving their stuff, we were on the outside just trying to hang with them.

“At the halfway break we finally got new tires,” said Drake, who is in his second season in the series. “We picked off a few anywhere we could. Getting to seventh, we kind of used up our stuff and stalled out right there.”

The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150, won by William Byron, will be televised on NBCSN on April 7 at 6:30 p.m. ET. It was the 14th visit by the K&N East Series to Greenville Pickens Speedway, the only this year.

Drake is fifth in the championship standings as the series heads to the Pittlite 125 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 18.