John Wes Townley Bristol Rewind

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In: Xfinity Series News

John Wes Townley managed to post a pair of season bests at Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Drive to Stop Diabetes 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Townley kicked off the morning qualifying session when he was one of 12 drivers out of 40 to advance to the third round. He wound up securing the 11th-starting position, which bettered his 13th-place start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February.

Saturday afternoon’s 300 lapper around the high-banked .533-mile oval proved to be topsy-turvy for the 25-year-old Watkinsville, Ga. native. His No. 25 Zaxby’s Chevrolet was loose during an early, lengthy green flag stretch that left him a lap behind eventual race winner Joey Logano.

Following adjustments by his Mike Ford-led team, Townley persevered only to later be flagged with a speeding penalty on pit road. With just under 100 laps remaining, Townley radioed to his team that his Chevrolet was losing power. He was left to nurse his ailing Camaro, which was down one cylinder, home to a respectable 14th-place finish. His previous best finish of the season was a 17th the previous week at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

“All in all, it was a good day for Athenian Motorsports and  Zaxby’s,” said Townley, who is running a partial schedule in the No. 25 Chevrolet while he focuses on a full schedule this season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

“When we dropped a cylinder late in the race, our lap times remained strong. But it was hard to pass because I just didn’t have that extra power when I got up under another car.

“But a season-best in qualifying and the race isn’t bad. We’ll take it and keep building from here.”

Townley’s effort on Saturday allowed the No. 25 team to jump a couple of spots to 20th in the Xfinity Series owner standings.

Dylan Lupton, who wheeled the No. 25 Zaxby’s Chevrolet to a 19th-place finish in Phoenix, Ariz. last month in his Xfinity Series debut, will return to the cockpit of Athenian Motorsports’ Camaro next weekend when the circuit heads to Richmond International Raceway in Virginia for Friday night action under the lights.

With the Truck Series idle until May 8th at Kansas Speedway, Townley is slated to return to the No. 25 Zaxby’s Chevrolet when the Xfinity Series rolls into Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Saturday May 2nd.

Athenian Motorsports PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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