Todd Gilliland will leave Kern County Raceway victorious in his No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota. Gilliland, son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland, led 72 of the 156 laps after starting on the pole.
The win did not come easy for the young driver. A caution came out with five laps to go for the No. 30 of Brandon Schilling on the backstretch. The field went back green with two laps remaining before a multi-car wreck involving Salvatore Lovino and Dan Phillippi broke out in turn two – extending the race into NASCAR Overtime.
Gilliland held onto the lead to score his eighth victory in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West.
“The first half we tried to save our tires as much as we could,” said Gilliland after the race. “We didn’t make any adjustments for the second half. From there, we started to pick up the pace a little bit. When we got to the lead, we tried to back it up – but it was hard with my teammate Derek Kraus right there on my bumper. We had some really fast Toyota Camrys here tonight,” he said. “It’s something we’re going to keep moving forward with – BMR with a front row start and 1-2 finish for a second straight week.”
Derek Kraus took home the second position in his No. 19 Carlyle Tools Toyota. The 15-year old driver started the NAPA Auto Parts 150 in the sixth position.
“We started sixth and moved up quickly,” Kraus said after the race. “Our Carlyle Tools / NGK Spark Plugs Toyota was really good at the beginning of the race. It fell off a little bit, got a little tight. At the break, we fixed it a little for the first 10 or 15 laps, but it got tight again and kind of wore the right front tire. That’s what made the difference at the end of the race.”
Kraus holds two top 10 finishes through the first two events of the West division in 2017.
Will Rodgers rounded out the top three finishers. Rodgers started the evening in third.
Michael Self led the field for the most laps in his No. 9 Lucas Oil Ford. Despite leading 84 circuits, Self finished the evening in sixth. He now holds 22 top five and 35 top 10 finishes through 59 career starts in the series.
Unofficial results:
|
NASCAR K&N PRO SERIES |
|
|
POS |
DRIVER |
|
1 |
Todd Gilliland |
|
2 |
Derrike Kraus* |
|
3 |
Will Rodgers* |
|
4 |
Chris Eggleston |
|
5 |
David Mayhew |
|
6 |
Michael Self |
|
7 |
Nicole Behar |
|
8 |
Blaine Perkins |
|
9 |
Kody Vanderwal* |
|
10 |
Todd Souza |
Unofficial points:
|
NASCAR K&N PRO SERIES |
||
|
POS |
DRIVER |
BEHIND |
|
1 |
Todd Gilliland |
LEADER |
|
2 |
Chris Eggleston |
-2 |
|
3 |
Will Rodgers |
-10 |
|
4 |
Derek Kraus |
-10 |
|
5 |
Kody Vanderwal |
-19 |
|
6 |
Nicole Behar |
-19 |
|
7 |
Blaine Perkins |
-21 |
|
8 |
Garret Archer |
-23 |
|
9 |
Julia Landauer |
-26 |
|
10 |
Matt Levin |
-30 |
The NAPA Auto Parts 150 will air at 10:45 PM on March 28 on NBCSN.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series will be back in action this weekend for a pair of races at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday, March 25, 2017. You can follow live coverage by visiting NASCARHomeTracks.com.
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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