Jason White and the No. 23 Joe Denette Motorsports team rallied back from engine woes to finish sixth in the VFW 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday. This was the third top-10 finish for the rookie team and a track-best finish for White at the two-mile tri-oval.
The solid finish advanced White one position, to 15th, in the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) driver point standings.
White began the weekend by posting the 11th and 17th-fastest times, respectively, in Friday’s twin practice sessions in the “Irish Hills” of Michigan. However, following the first run during NCWTS final practice, an expired engine on the No. 23 GunBroker.com Chevrolet forced the team to change engines in preparation for Saturday afternoon’s 100-mile event.
Starting 18th, White raced inside the top-20 for most of the VFW 200, even going one-lap down to the race leader by lap 58. It wasn’t until lap 68, when the leaders began making their way down pit road under green-flag conditions that White was able to capture the “Lucky Dog” award and return to his position on the lead lap.
As green-flag pit stops cycled through, White, running 14th, was scheduled to make his final stop of the afternoon on lap 80. However, a caution for debris on lap 79 was the lucky break the team needed. White brought his No. 23 machine down pit road to the attention of his crew for four tires and fuel. When racing resumed on lap 82, the Richmond, VA native, was scored 11th.
Four caution flags plagued the remaining 18 laps, sending the event into overtime for a green-white-checkered finish. White avoided the melee to take the checkered flag in the sixth position behind race winner, Kevin Harvick.
Jason White Quotes:
“I’m really proud of everyone on this GunBroker.com team. We have had some bad luck on our side the last few weeks and to bounce back from all the adversity to bring home a top-10 today was great. We didn’t have a top-10 truck, but we never gave up, avoided a lot of wrecks, made the right adjustments on the truck, and had great pit stops. I hope the monkey is off our back. All and all it was a good run and a good point’s day.”
JDM PR
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