In one of the most anticipated races of the 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, Tyler Young and his Young’s Motorsports team brilliantly fought through adversity in the Aspen Dental Eldora Dirt Derby and recovered for a solid top-20 finish in the Buckeye State.
After a solid practice and qualifying effort, Young raced his way into his fourth Eldora Speedway race after battling Chris Fontaine for the final transfer spot in the fourth qualifying race of the night.
With minor damage to his No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Chevrolet Silverado, the Andrew Abbott-led team quickly went to work bandaging up their truck for 150 laps of slingin’ in the dirty.
From the early laps of the race though, Young informed his team that something was wrong. The truck felt uncomfortable and was laying hard into the dirt pavement of Eldora Speedway. The Midland, Texas native was able to quickly diagnose the issue with the sway bar.
Eldora’s half-mile layout proved to work against the Young’s Motorsports team as they were forced to come to pit road and repair the truck, but lost several laps in the process.
Once fixed, Young maneuvered impressive lap times, good enough to put him inside the top-15, but with the unexpected pit stops, Young found himself utilizing the remainder of the event as a test session, rather than an actual race.
Negotiating through traffic and avoiding additional on-track carnage, Young was able to battle back from a race low 29th to finish 20th, his seventh top-20 effort of the 2016 season in nine races.
Tyler Young Quote:
“I had a blast in our qualifying race. Battling Chris (Fontaine) like down to the checkered flag is why the trucks come to Eldora to begin with.
“We were really excited about coming to Eldora and having a good finish, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I am really proud of Andrew and the team for quickly putting a plan together that allowed us to correct the problem with the sway bar without losing any more laps than we did.
“Easily, the team could have gotten derailed with the issue, but everyone remained focused, cool, calm and collected and we fought through the adversity for a respectable finish. Our truck was a lot better than 20th, but what we learned on Wednesday night can surely help us for 2017 and beyond.”
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