BMR Drivers Post Top Marks At Evergreen
• McReynolds Takes Second, Raz Sixth In K&N West Action
MONROE, Wash. (Aug. 16, 2014) – Brandon McReynolds nabbed a career-best second-place finish in the NAPA AUTO PARTS/Toyota 150 at Evergreen Speedway Saturday night, while his Bill McAnally Racing teammate Gracin Raz finished sixth in his series debut.
Both BMR drivers had qualified in the top five earlier in the day, with McReynolds capturing his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season in the No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota and Raz turning in the fifth-fast time in the No. 99 NAPA Filters/Get Up Foundation Toyota.
Starting from the pole, McReynolds initially slipped to second before taking the lead seven laps into the event. He lost the top spot on Lap 23 and then fell back two more positions to fourth during two consecutive restarts. He rebounded following the midway break, taking third on the restart and gaining second a few laps later. Although he dropped to third after a late-race restart, McReynolds charged back to grab second at the finish behind race winner David Mayhew.
“It was a good run,” said McReynolds, who was making his first visit to Evergreen Speedway. “We fell back there a little at the beginning. Our guys made really good adjustments to make our car better in the second half. I felt like we had the best car the last few laps and we were gaining on the 17 and the 9. It was a lot of fun. The NAPA Toyota was good. We’ve just got to get one spot better.”
Raz – a 17-year-old from Lake Oswego, Oregon who was making his first start in the series – slipped from fifth to sixth at the start of the race and battled just outside the top five throughout the event. He fell back as far as eighth before moving up late in the race.
McReynolds, a member of the NASCAR Next program that spotlights NASCAR’s rising stars, remains third in the championship standings. The 23-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina is 31 points out of first and just six points behind second. In addition to his two poles, he has eight top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 10 series starts this year – his first full season of competing in K&N West
The NAPA AUTO PARTS/Toyota 150, the 10th of 14-race schedule, will be televised on FOX Sports on Aug. 22 at 10 a.m. ET. The race marked the 54th visit by the series to historic .646-mile track in Monroe, Washington.
The next event on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule will be at Kern County Raceway Park near Bakersfield, California on Aug. 30.