Drake Looks Forward To K&N Pro Series East Return To Richmond
• Staropoli Back In Competition With BMR Team
ROSEVILLE, Calif. (Sept. 8, 2015) – The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East makes its return to Richmond (Virginia) International Raceway on Thursday for the UNOH 100.
Nick Drake is looking forward to getting back to the 3/4-mile track, where last year as a rookie he won the pole and finished third in the Bill McAnally Racing No. 15 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota.
Drake knows another great performance at RIR could give him a big boost in the top 10 of the championship standings as the season winds down. The 19-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina is eighth in points, but only 14 markers out of the top five with two events remaining on the 14-race series schedule.
Drake has one top-five and six top-10 finishes in 12 races this season.
Joining Drake as a BMR teammate at Richmond will be Patrick Staropoli, who will be driving the No. 99 AutoNation Cure Bowl Toyota. The 25-year-old from Plantation, Florida raced in three K&N Pro Series East races early last season and made two starts in 2014 in the K&N Pro Series West, winning at Irwindale (California) Speedway in March.
Racing is not Staropoli’s only pursuit in life, however. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University and currently attends medical school at the University of Miami.
After winning the inaugural PEAK Stock Car Dream Challenge in 2013, Staropoli made two starts in the K&N Pro Series West for BMR that fall. In addition to his win, he has three top-five and four top-10 finishes in four K&N Pro Series West starts overall, and two top-10 finishes in three starts in the K&N Pro Series East.
Staropoli returns to the series representing the AutoNation Cure Bowl, a new NCAA College Football Bowl Game held in Orlando, Florida on Dec. 19, 2015 that will benefit Breast Cancer awareness and research. More information can be found at CureBowl.com.
The UNOH 100 will be televised on NBCSN on Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. ET. It will mark the fifth standalone series race at RIR.