Just past the half-way point in Friday night’s Fast Five 225 at Chicagoland Speedway, it looked like Jason White and the Joe Denette Motorsports team was going to have a solid finish. However, an alternator problem that ultimately led to an extended pit stop to change a battery under green-flag conditions cost the veteran driver valuable time and relegated the rookie team to a 24th-place finish.
Starting 18th, White maintained his position inside the top-20 for the first 40 laps until bringing his No. 23 GunBroker.com Chevrolet down pit road under green at lap 42 for four tires and fuel. As green-flag pit stops cycled through, the second caution flag of the night was displayed at lap 59 for fluid on the track. The untimely caution left only six trucks on the lead lap. White was scored one lap down in the 15th position.
Instead of bringing his GunBroker machine down pit road to the attention of his crew, White chose to stay out and take the wave around. When racing resumed on lap 65, the No. 23 machine was scored 14th on the lead lap.
With just 65 laps remaining in the 150-lap event, White radioed into the team that he was low on power and showed signs of an electrical issue. At lap 90, under green, White was forced to bring his yellow and black Chevrolet down pit road to replace the battery. The unfortunate event left White mired multiple laps down.
Austin Dillon would go on to win the Fast Five 225 and Jason White would take the checkered flag 24th, six laps down.
Jason White Quotes:
“I had a pretty good truck tonight. I felt like our biggest competitor was the two truck of Harvick. He was the only truck that was faster than us and I knew if we had a good pit stop there at the end we could beat him. Unfortunately, we had an issue with the alternator wire that ultimately forced us to change the battery under green flag conditions. Even after being stuck multiple laps down, my lap times were just as fast as the top-six trucks. It’s unfortunate. You have to be able to survive these things every week and we haven’t been able to do that. We run well and then something always happens. I feel like we are close, really close, we just have to be able to finish what we start.”
JDM PR
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