In his fifth NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race of the year, Tyler Young (@tyleryoung02) earned a season-high 14th place finish in this past Saturday’s LTi Printing 200 at Michigan International Speedway.
The finish was solid for the Mooresville, N.C.-based Young’s Motorsports team who ran as high as sixth during the 100-lap draft-fest Saturday, but adverse handling kept Young from collecting his second straight top-10 in the Irish Hills.
The effort, however, was productive for Young aboard his No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco Industries Chevrolet nonetheless.
After qualifying 17th, the 26-year-old ended Stage 1 in 16th, the team exercised pit strategy to bolt into the top-10 for the start of Stage 2. However, the gutsy two-tire call from crew chief Chad Kendrick worked for a short time, but Young’s truck became loose dropping the Midland, Texas native through the field.
Hovering inside the top-15 at the end of Stage 2, Kendrick made another round of adjustments to the truck to combat the handling setting Stage 3 for Young in 14th.
Wrestling for the available positions around him, Young simply ran out of laps to make a better impact on his 14th place finish, earning his second top-15 finish of 2017.
“I made some mistakes during the race that hurt our finish and for that I’m sorry to my guys,” said Young. “We had a pretty good truck. It was just hard to recover after making a mistake when we didn’t get the yellow flags to fall our way.
“This was a brand-new truck to our fleet and I feel like it performed well. There’s still some tweaks we need to make with this No. 02 Young’s Building Systems / Randco. Chevrolet, but I can’t thank my guys enough for their support and we’ll be back, better than ever.”
Following Michigan, Young headed to Indiana where he participated in a meet and greet at the Elkhart Grand Prix with partner Portable Shade on Sun., Aug. 15.
“Had a great time in Indiana,” said Young. “The fans there were great. The atmosphere was phenomenal. I’d like to come back sometime. It was great to seeing a community rally around a day for racing and activities. It was really neat.”
Looking ahead, Young’s Motorsports heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, where Austin Hill will be back in command of the No. 02 truck for a mid-week show at Bristol’s demanding half-mile short track.
“Austin has done a great job for us this year,” added Young. “He’s been very consistent, scored some stage points and leaves nothing on the table. Bristol is one of his favorite race tracks and I look forward to watching him try to earn the team’s second top-10 finish of the season on Wednesday night.”
Hill will make his eighth NCWTS start of the year and is eyeing his fourth top-15 finish in a row, which includes a 10th and 11th place finish respectively in his last two races at Kentucky Speedway and Pocono Raceway respectively.
Young is scheduled to return to the driving duties at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sun., Sept. 3.
In 75 career NCWTS starts, Young holds four top-10 finishes to his credit with a career-best sixth at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in February 2016. A sixth-place qualifying effort at Eldora Speedway in July 2015 is his best time trials effort to date. Young’s Motorsports has competed on the tour since 2012.
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