Handling woes keep Tyler Young from contending at Dover

Not going down without a fight, Tyler Young and his Young’s Motorsports fought through handling issues to finish a respectable 21st in Friday afternoon’s JACOB Companies 200 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

The Mooresville, North Carolina-team chased the handling from the moment the first practice session commenced on Thursday afternoon from “The Monster Mile.” An endless effort by crew chief Andrew Abbott and steady progress during the two practice sessions had the team optimistic heading into race day.

As expected, Mother Nature surfaced shortly before the start of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying forcing NASCAR to cancel the session and line the teams up per the rule book. Young would start 28th.

When the green flag dropped, Young did his best to pedal his way forward. Settling in to an uncharacteristic early green flag run at Dover, Young was quiet on the radio until reporting that his No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet Silverado was tight.

The first caution flag of the day waved on Lap 43 allowing teams to head to pit road for adjustments with Young asking help for a tight-handling truck, especially over the bumps.

Racing resumed with Young in 24th, where he would hold steady during the event’s second caution when he pitted again for fuel and adjustments.

Despite battling a loose and tight truck depending on where he was circling the 1.0-mile oval, Young continued to float between 26th and 24th through the halfway mark. While still combating the handling through the event’s final 50 circuits, Young would find himself in a horrendous battle for 20th when the No. 71 of Brandon Jones.

While Young could close the distance on Jones, a tight condition would keep the Midland, Texas native from making the pass.

When the final caution flag waved inside the event’s final 30 laps, Young opted to come to pit road for a shock adjustment – hoping it would give the team that extra push to pass Jones.

Despite a hard fought effort on the restart to make the pass, Young fell short and settled for 21st, his first race outside the top-15 in 2016.

Tyler Young Quote:

“It was a good effort by the team, but we just missed it this weekend. We fought all weekend long to get the handling to our liking, but we just couldn’t find that setup that would work on both corners of the race track. It wasn’t for a lack of effort though. We tried and we tried hard.

“The only thing we can do is learn from the weekend and pick up the pieces and get ready for Charlotte. I’m really confident in our mile and a half program right now and we’re bringing the same truck we finished 11th with at Kansas, so we’ll just put Dover in the rear-view mirror and look ahead.”

Young Motorsports PR