The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West started their season over the weekend at Tucson Speedway. The event marks just one of the 14 scheduled races on the series calendar in 2017.
Chris Eggleston, a 27-year old racer with 32 starts in the West division, left the 0.375-mile track with his sixth career victory in the series. Eggleston, who has six career starts in the Camping World Truck Series, led 80 of the 150 scheduled laps of the event.
“Everybody on this NAPA Filters Toyota did a heck of a job,” Eggleston said after the race. “With the guys missing their flight Friday, due to weather, everybody rebounded so nicely. We had a well-balanced race car yesterday in testing. We fine tuned on it. And even though we were good in practice, we just kept trying to find speed.”
It ended up being a back n fourth battle all night between Eggleston and teammate Todd Gilliland. Both drivers went back n fourth for the lead five different times over the course of the NAPA Auto Parts Tucson 150. With 59 laps to go, Eggleston cleared Gilliland for the lead and stayed there until the checkered flag.
Gilliland, son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland, finished second in the event. The 16-year old young racer started the event from the pole and led the field for 70 circuits in his No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota.
“We led most of the first half and was out front at the midway break,” said Gilliland after the race. “We didn’t quite make the right adjustments, or the 99 made really good adjustments. He was able to pass us. I felt like he was running too hard,” Gilliland said. “So we kind of let him go, but he just kept pulling away. He had a really fast car. Good job to Chris and everyone on that team.”
Garret Archer rounded out the top three finishers. Archer, a 20-year old from Maple Valley, Washington, started 16th and went on to capture his first career top five finish in his No. 27 Recruit 4 Business Ford.
Tucson being his second career start in the series, Archer made his debut last season at Evergreen Speedway. He started sixth, but finished 18th after developing an issue with his suspension.
Top 10 results:
|
NASCAR K&N PRO SERIES – Unofficial Results |
|
|
POS |
DRIVER |
|
1 |
Chris Eggleston |
|
2 |
Todd Gilliland |
|
3 |
Garret Archer* |
|
4 |
Zane Smith* |
|
5 |
Will Rodgers* |
|
6 |
Derek Kraus* |
|
7 |
Brandon Schilling* |
|
8 |
Kody Vanderwal* |
|
9 |
Riley Herbst |
|
10 |
Nicole Behar |
Unofficial points standings:
|
NASCAR K&N PRO SERIES – Unofficial Points |
||
|
POS |
DRIVER |
BEHIND |
|
1 |
Chris Eggleston |
Leader |
|
2 |
Todd Gilliland |
-5 |
|
3 |
Garret Archer |
-7 |
|
4 |
Zane Smith |
-8 |
|
5 |
Will Rodgers |
-9 |
|
6 |
Derek Kraus |
-10 |
|
7 |
Brandon Schilling |
-11 |
|
8 |
Kody Vanderwal |
-12 |
|
9 |
Riley Herbst |
-13 |
|
10 |
Nicole Behar |
-14 |
The NAPA Auto Parts Tucson 150 will air on NBCSN at 8:30 p.m. ET. on Friday, March 23.
The series will head to Kern County Raceway Park on March 23 for the NAPA Auto Parts 150. Fans can follow live coverage by visiting NASCARHomeTracks.com on Race Central Live.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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