John Wes Townley Talladega Rewind/Kansas Preview

With 40 laps remaining in Saturday’s Winn Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway, John Wes Townley was riding in the middle of the lead draft and poised to make his move toward the front of the field.

But that strategy appeared to go out the window after the driver of the Zaxby’s Chevrolet was swept up in a multi-car crashed when Ryan Sieg clipped Daniel Suarez near the entrance of pit road during the start of a green flag cycle of stops for service.

With left-front and right-rear damage on the Zaxby’s Chevrolet, Townley’s day looked to be done.

But swift work under caution by the Mike Ford-led Athenian Motorsports team got Townley’s back on track. The bandaged and patched Camaro didn’t look to be aerodynamically-sound on NASCAR’s fastest track. But Townley was able to hang with the lead draft during the closing laps when he managed to turn his fastest lap of the race.

With five laps remaining, the Watkinsville, Ga. native made a surge to the outside and briefly cracked the top 10 in the running order. But the effects of the lap 74 crash was too much to overcome, relegating Townley to a 15th-place finish.

“With the competition in the Xfinity Series these days and considered how our car looks, 15th place isn’t too bad,” Townley said.

“I can’t think my team enough for getting me back on the track and in a position to even compete for a top 15 finish. When we got caught up in that mess (on lap 74), I really thought our day was done. I came on the radio and said ‘our car is hurt.’

“But my guys are amazing and I can’t thank them enough for their hard work.”

With the Xfinity Series idle until a visit to Iowa Speedway on Sunday May 17th, Townley will jump back into the Zaxby’s Chevrolet Silverado next weekend when the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action at Kansas Speedway.

“Kansas is one of my favorite tracks in all of racing,” Townley said. “I barely missed winning two ARCA races at Kansas Speedway over the past couple of years. I know (crew chief) Michael Shelton will have a good Zaxby’s Chevrolet truck for us. I can’t wait to get out there.”

The  Toyota Tundra 250 is scheduled to start at 8:49 p.m. eastern on Friday May 8th and will be televised live on Fox Sports 1.

Athenian Motorsports PR