Jason White and the No. 23 Joe Denette Motorsports team didn’t get the results they expected in Friday night’s Good Sam Club 200 and, as a result, left Atlanta Motor Speedway with a 25th-place finish.
Despite starting 23rd, White was up to 17th by the time the first caution flag was displayed on lap 20 for oil on the track. Crew chief, Richie Snyder, brought White down pit road for four tires and fuel. Solid work by the Joe Denette Motorsports pit crew allowed the No. 23 machine to pick-up four positions on pit road, placing White in the 13th position for the lap 26 restart.
White maintained his position inside the top-15 for the next 34 laps. When the evening’s third caution flag was displayed on lap 60 for an accident in turn-2, Snyder brought the No. 23 Chevrolet down pit road for four tires, including an air pressure adjustment and fuel.
Shortly after the field went back to green on lap 64, White reported a vibration on the right side. A quick caution just nine laps later allowed White to come down pit road for right side tires only and fuel. A loose right rear wheel was the culprit of the vibration on the GunBroker.com machine. Green-flag racing resumed on lap 76 with White scored in the 25th position.
Just three laps later the fifth and final caution flag of the night waved at lap 79 for a spin on the frontstretch. The team would use this opportunity to make one last pit stop to top off on fuel. Confident in their strategy to make it to the end on fuel, White lined up in the 20th position for the lap 81 restart.
Soon after, all hopes of a promising run would be cut short. On the restart at lap 81, the No. 7 machine got loose getting into the left front fender of the No. 23, forcing White up the track and into the wall. A flat right front tire forced the GunBroker Chevrolet down pit road under green. The untimely event left White three laps down to the race leader and hampered any forward progress for the remainder of the 130-lap event.
Although, the disappointing turn of events relegated White to the 28th position, he was able to notch three more spots on track in the closing 45 laps to finish 25th behind race winner, Ron Hornaday.
Jason White Quotes:
“I knew we didn’t have a very good truck for qualifying, but I knew we would be good for the race. We were pretty good at the beginning of the night, just a little tight, but made the right adjustments on it to get it right. We had a solid pit strategy in place and with 45 laps to go, knew we were good on fuel, when all the leaders had to pit. Once we got the damage from the No. 7 our night took a turn for the worse. We had to limp around the track under green to get tires and just got buried multiple laps down in the field. We had high hopes for coming into this race, so this wasn’t the finish we were looking for.”
Notes:
· In 17 starts, the Joe Denette Motorsports team has one top-five, three top-10, seven top-15 and 11 top-20 finishes.
· White currently has an average starting position of 17.4 and an average finishing position of 17.7 in 2011. The veteran driver has led 50 laps and completed 95.22 percent of laps attempted (2529 of 2656).
· White is currently 15th in the 2011 NCWTS driver point standings.
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