BMR Entries Have Solid Showing At Sonoma
• Only Road Course In 2015 For K&N Pro Series West
SONOMA, Calif. (June 27, 2015) – The four drivers in Bill McAnally Racing entries came away from the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West event at Sonoma Raceway Saturday with solid performances that were better than what was reflected in the final finish.
Cole Custer, in the No. 00 NAPA AUTOCARE / HAAS Automation Toyota, and Trevor Bayne, in the No. 60 AdvoCare entry, finished ninth and 10th, respectively, in the Carneros 200 – while Chris Eggleston took 13th in the No. 99 NAPA Filters / H2O Fire Protection Toyota and Brandon McReynolds ended up 19th in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota.
McReynolds qualified fourth on the twisting 1.99-mile road course and ran in the lead pack throughout the race. The 24-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina, moved up to the third position early in the race, but later slipped back to fourth. He appeared headed for a finish better than the fifth-place he had last year at Sonoma, until a late caution led to a green-white-checkered situation. McReynolds got dumped by another driver on the final lap, leaving him to finish 19th.
Bayne qualified ninth and Custer qualified 13th, but each had to start at the back of the 38-car field due to mechanical issues that had to be corrected prior to the race. With the event scheduled for a midway break by NASCAR, the chance of gaining track position by pit strategy was out the window and both teams knew it would all be up to the drivers to gain all the positions they could on the track.
Custer – a 17-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California – and Bayne, a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular who drives for Roush Fenway Racing, steadily worked their way through the pack and by the midway break were 13th and 14th, respectively. Custer made his way into the top-10 on Lap 52, with Bayne trailing close behind. The pair were soon in the midst of one of the most dramatic battles of the day, with five or six cars battling back-and-forth lap after lap around the winding road course.
Custer was ninth heading into the final restart and managed to hold onto the position, despite the melee around him. It topped his 12th-place finish of a year ago at the Northern California track. Bayne was 11th on the final restart and managed to move up one spot in the final two laps.
Eggleston, who led the championship standings coming into the event, was making his first start on a road course. The Erie, Colorado driver qualified a respectable 17th as he worked to learn his way around the challenging track. Although he gained several positions early in the race, he got shuffled back to 18th just after a restart on the first of three cautions in the event.
Eggleston ran a steady race and was able to rebound to finish 13th – keeping him first in the series standings with a nine-point lead. With that, team owner Bill McAnally will receive the mid-season bonus award from NASCAR. Eggleston, meanwhile, has scored two wins, four top-five and five top-10 finishes in six starts this season.
McReynolds remains ninth in the series standings, with one win and three top-10 finishes.
The Carneros 200, which was won by David Mayhew, will be televised on NBCSN on July 2 at 6 p.m. ET. It was the sixth event on a 13-race schedule. It was the 26th stand-alone K&N West race at Sonoma.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West heads next to Stateline Speedway in Post Falls, Idaho on July 11.