Dye’s Bid for a Top-10 Run in Vegas Comes Up Snake Eyes
Venue: Las Vegas Motor Speedway
FINISH: 24th
Start: 9th
Laps Led: 0
NCTS Point Standings Position: 11th
Daniel Dye sits in the 11th position for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) points standings after a trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS). Dye took the checkered flag in 24th after an unscheduled pit stop in the final stage negated his run inside the top-10.
Dye put on another stellar performance in qualifying as he posted the ninth-fastest lap on Friday afternoon. The strong wind early in the race made Dye’s No. 43 NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet Silverado RST become very tight going into the corners. Dye used his experience to adjust his line to limit his losses and was scored 18th at the end of Stage 1 on lap 30.
Dye came onto pit road with the rest of the field under the stage caution. He received four tires, fuel, and adjustments to help the handling condition. The second stage came to the green flag on lap 35 with Dye restarted 21st and he wasted no time making moves forward. He advanced as high as 15th as the stage went without a caution and was scored 17th at the end of Stage 2 on lap 60.
The second pit stop for Dye saw him receive four tires and fuel. Dye found a groove in the beginning of the final stage and advanced to 15th. As time came for green flag pit stops on lap 100, Dye pitted on the front side of the cycle to take advantage of fresh right-side tires. After the pit stop cycle Dye was in ninth place with the possibility of scoring a second-straight top-10, but he was forced to make an extra unscheduled pit stop for fuel. The extra pit stop resulted in Dye taking the checkered flag in 24th position.
Daniel Dye Quote:
“We had some good speed in our NAPA Nightvision Chevrolet tonight. We ran inside the top-15 for a lot of the night and (crew chief) Blake (Bainbridge) made a good call on that green flag stop. Unfortunately, we had to make a late stop for fuel and that kept us from getting another good finish. I’m proud of this team. We’re making gains and looking forward to improving at Bristol in a couple weeks.”