Gale Brings Home a 10th-Place Finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway

Cale Gale came into the Ford EcoBoost 200 looking to defend his crown as the defending race winner. After a disappointing practice session, Gale’s solid qualifying effort placed him in the ninth-place starting position for the 134-lap Ford EcoBoost 200. Battling a tight-handling Ruud Chevy Silverado, Gale settled into a groove around mid-pack and waited to make his move. With two-laps remaining in the scheduled distance, Gale relinquished the 13th-position to duck down pit road for two right-side tires. The Turner Scott Motorsports team’s strategy paid off as Gale was able to fight hard for a 10th-place finish in the 2013 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

 

During the events only practice session, the No. 33 team struggled to find the right balance for their Ruud Silverado, placing them 19th on the practice charts. After making some adjustments before heading into the qualifying session that afternoon, the Ruud team seemed to hit on a setup, which placed Gale in the ninth starting spot for the series finale race.

 

When the green flag released the field, Gale settled into a groove and waited for the right opportunity to make his move. When the second yellow flag of the evening was displayed on lap 42, Gale gave up the 16th running position to come down pit road for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment to loosen up his Ruud Silverado. Back under green, Gale went back to work, trying to close the gap to the top-10. While running in the 15th spot and still battling a tight race truck, Gale came back down pit road for his second time of the night on lap 66. After receiving four tires, fuel and another chassis adjustment, Gale would restart just outside the top-10 in the 11th spot.

 

On lap 110, Gale would find himself running inside the top-10 for the first time since lap 10. With just under 25 laps to go in the scheduled race distance, Gale found himself in some tight racing quarters, trying to hold onto his position. The race was slowed once again with just two laps before the scheduled distance. Gale, along with many of his other competitors,ducked down pit road for two right-side tires. After slipping as far back as 16th, Gale was able to fight his way back into the top-10 with the help of multiple green-white-checkered restart attempts. Gale brought his Ruud team home a 10th-place finish, his second top-10 in two weeks.

 

“I had a lot of fun out there tonight,” said Gale. “We had a tight handling Ruud truck all day, but my crew made some great adjustments and the right call by taking those two tires at the end. I want to thank Turner Scott Motorsports and Ruud for giving me this opportunity to come out and defend my race win. We came up a little short but a 10th-place finish is pretty solid for what we were battling.”

 

TSM PR