Despite a 22nd place finish in Wednesday night’s 1-800-CARCASH Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Mason Mingus flexed his muscle.
Mingus, a native of Brentwood, Tennessee may have been a rookie on the dirt, but his performance in practice made him look like a seasoned veteran. Aboard the No. 35 Call 811 Before You Dig Toyota Tundra, the Win-Tron Racing driver racked up the second fastest time in both practice sessions Wednesday morning.
With confidence on his side, Mingus also produced the second fastest time in qualifying, which put him on the pole position for the second of five heat races. Mingus’s finish in his respective heat race would lock his starting position for the feature.
During his heat, Mingus led the seven-truck field to the green, but was overtaken by Jeb Burton on the first lap and slid back to third when the checkered flag waived, lining him up a season-best 12th for his Eldora Speedway debut.
From the drop of the green flag for the second-annual 150-lap event, Mingus maintained a solid spot inside the top-15, despite torrid battles from his competitors on both the inside and outside groove. However, while racing hard, Mingus sent his No. 35 Call 811 Before You Dig Toyota Tundra for an innocent loop approaching Lap 25, but unfortunately, the 19-year old lost a tremendous amount of track position.
When racing resumed, Mingus found himself in the “eye of the storm” of the field, but with track position at a prime, the former ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards driver struggled to attract the grip he needed to throttle forward.
Despite a gallant effort, Mingus was unable to solider forward back inside the top-15, but did, however, attract his seventh top-25 finish of the year. Nonetheless, the day was considered successful for both Mingus in his NASCAR dirt debut and new crew chief Tripp Bruce.
“We had an up and down day, but overall we made a lot of great progress,” said Mingus. “For this being my only fourth time on dirt, I was very pleased with qualifying second and on top of that, this was my first race with Tripp (Bruce) on top the box. We had a very fast No. 35 Call 811 Before You Dig Toyota Tundra when the track was wet, we just lacked a lot of grip during the race.
“It was a good day for everyone to get used to working with Trip. Now we can build on that and get ready for Pocono next weekend.”
Nate Thiesse co-truck owner of Win-Tron Racing offered his thoughts post-Eldora.
“We’re real proud of Mason, Tripp and the entire Win-Tron Racing team for their efforts at Eldora. No, we didn’t get the finish that we wanted, but everyone knew that we were there. That’s the type of attention we want to have. We’ll keep working hard and see if we can’t go to Pocono next weekend and have a strong race.”
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