Blake Koch Adds Another Track-Best Weekend After Indy

Making only his third NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) trip to the historical Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Lilly Diabetes 250, Blake Koch started his weekend off with the 18th and 23rd-fastest laps in both of Friday’s practice sessions. Moving on to race day, Koch was able to qualify a track-best 13th at the 2.5-mile oval, lining him up seventh in the first of two heat races in the Dash 4 Cash finale.

 

Early on in the 20-lap heat race, Koch radioed to his crew that his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection™ Chevrolet Camaro was “tight, tight, tight.” Because of this, Koch settled into the ninth position, where he ran for the remainder of the first heat race, giving him a 17th starting spot for the 60-lap main event.

 

In between the first heat and the start of the main race, crew chief Chris Rice and the Kaulig Racing™ team went to work making changes to loosen Koch up for the ensuing 60 laps. Once the green flag dropped, Koch proceeded to use the first few laps getting adjusted to the changes he received, causing him to slip back to 19th.

 

With green flag pit stops closing in, Koch informed his team that he was “too loose all over.” Rice brought the No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection™ Chevrolet Camaro to pit road, under green, on lap 27 for four tires, fuel and various adjustments to help Koch’s handling.

 

Once green flag pit stops cycled through for the leaders, Koch was scored 19th, one lap down. However, the handling on the No. 11 machine was starting to come around, allowing Koch to make up some ground before the first caution of the race came out on lap 50.

 

Rice, seeing an opportunity to continue tweaking on the car’s setup, called Koch down pit road for four tires, fuel and another round of track bar and air pressure adjustments. Restarting 16th, Koch held his ground, and just as he was about to make a move, the second caution of the race came out on lap 56, sending the Lilly Diabetes 250 into overtime.

 

Restarting just outside the top-15 for a green-white-checkered finish, Koch kept composed during a wild restart to come away with another track-best finish, a 15th-place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  

 

Quote:
“We struggled with the handling of our No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection™ Chevrolet Camaro all day, but we had some good adjustments and really good pit stops that gave me track position. I had two good restarts at the end of the race to get us a top-15 finish. We obviously wanted more, but making the Chase is the main focus right now and we had a good point day.” 

Kaulig Racing PR