rittney Zamora enjoyed her homecoming in NASCAR K&N Pro Series West competition at Evergreen Speedway on Saturday night – qualifying on the pole in her No. 99 ENEOS/NAPA Filters Toyota Camry, leading nearly a third of the laps and matching her career-best mark with a third-place finish in the NAPA AUTO PARTS 150 presented by ENEOS.
Her Bill McAnally Racing teammates, Derek Kraus and Hailie Deegan, also showed their strength – battling among themselves and others in the lead pack for much of the race.
Kraus finished in the runner-up spot in the No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry. Deegan challenged the leaders on numerous occasions in the No. 19 Monster Energy/NAPA Power Premium Plus Toyota Camry, but faded to seventh in the final laps.
Zamora – a 20-year-old series rookie from Kennewick, Washington – set the pace for the first 46 laps. She got shuffled back to fifth on a later restart and settled in at that point, but mounted a charge after making adjustments at the midway break of the race.
“We led about 40 laps and then the car took a big fall off,” Zamora said. “It turned like a switch. It was good and all of a sudden it was bad. I told the guys what it was doing at every spot on the track and we made adjustments. It helped us a lot. We were able to pick off a few cars.”
Zamora, who raced in the Super Late Model division at Evergreen Speedway last year, gave her fans plenty to cheer for as she chased after second place.
“We were fighting for second there,” she said. “I thought I was going to get Derek. I just didn’t have everything I needed to get by him.”
Zamora remains second in rookie points and fifth in the overall championship standings for the series. She has five top-five and six top-10 finishes, along with two poles, in nine starts this season.
Kraus, who qualified third, worked his way to the front and led laps 81 through 100. He was battling a tight condition, however, and had to settle for second.
“Our NAPA Toyota was extremely tight,” said Kraus, a 17-year-old NASCAR Next driver from Stratford, Wisconsin. “That was one of the tightest race cars I’ve ever had. We were fighting that all night and never could really get that fixed. But overall it was a good night, a good points night.”
With his second-place finish, Kraus retained his lead in the championship standings by 18 points. He has three wins, six top-five and eight top-10 finishes in nine starts this season.
Deegan, also a NASCAR Next driver, slipped to third in the standings. The 18-year-old from Temecula, California has two wins, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes – along with two poles – in her nine starts this year.
Guests from NAPA and ENEOS were treated to a special hospitality area at the track, part of the VIP experience courtesy of BMR. The VIP treatment included rides in BMR’s two-seater No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry on Friday evening and a special pit tour on Saturday.
The Evergreen Speedway race, won by Trevor Huddleston, will be televised to a national audience on NBCSN on Aug. 22 at 3 p.m. PT.
The next event on the series schedule will be a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East-West combination race, the Monaco Cocktails 125 presented by the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway near St. Louis on Saturday, Aug. 24.
BMR PR
