Tough End to a Promising Day for Gaulding at Martinsville

By:
On:
In: NASCAR Truck Series News
Martinsville Speedway is a challenging track in many aspects. It’s tough on equipment, from keeping the truck in one piece to saving the brakes. It’s also tough on the drivers to keep a cool head and maintain patience. Gray Gaulding overcame many of those challenges throughout the Kroger 200, even leading nine laps, but while running near the top 10 with 15 laps to go contact with another truck left him with a 21st-place finish.
  
Gaulding started his Krispy Kreme Tundra in seventh place and moved into fourth within a few laps. A caution on lap 36 brought several of the leaders to pit road, but crew chief Eddie Troconis felt it was too early to pit, so he told Gaulding the stay on the track. Not pitting gave him the lead on lap 37.
 
When the race resumed Gaulding had led a total of nine laps, but began to slip back through the field against the trucks with new tires. A much-needed caution came on lap 62 when a truck spun directly in front of Gaulding. He was able to stop without hitting the truck, but did suffer a flat left-front tire. He pitted for tires and was back in 28th, one lap down. His luck turned around a few laps later with another caution, which allowed him to regain his lap.
 
By halfway at lap 100, Gaulding was back up to 15th and moved into the top 10 a few laps later. The Krispy Kreme Tundra was pretty good and no chassis adjustments were needed during what should have been his final pit stop under caution on lap 124. He was up to ninth place with 50 laps to go.
 
A string of cautions in the final 50 laps hurt his track position since he seemed to be stuck on the outside for every restart. He restarted 10th with 23 laps remaining but fell back to 14th on the outside. Restarting again on the outside on lap 186 Gaulding tried to move down to the inside line. Although he was told he was clear, unfortunately he was not and made contact with another truck which spun him in turn one. After pitting for tires and to pull out the fenders on the left side, Gaulding found himself one lap down in 26th with 10 laps to go.
 
A final caution a few laps later allowed Gaulding to regain his lap again. He was up to 23rd for the final restart with two laps remaining. Never one to give up, Gaulding gained two spots in the final laps to finish 21st.
 
“We started off pretty good,” Gaulding said. “We ran in the top five for 50-some laps, and knew we had a good Krispy Kreme Tundra. We stayed out under that first caution which was pretty risky, but it actually turned out to be okay. We dropped back a ton, got a caution and came back from 23rd up to seventh. We were having a good run there, but could never catch a break restarting on the outside. Every time we were on the inside someone would pit and put us back on the outside. We should have easily finished top five today, it’s just real unfortunate that we ran up front all day long and in the end have no finish to show for it.”

KBM PR

Speedway Digest Staff
Follow Me
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)
Post Views: 60