That’s exactly what 17-year-old Dylan Presnell did Friday at Dover International Speedway in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East American Real TV 150, chauffeuring the Amtrol/AmericanMountainRentals.com/No. 26 Toyota Camry to a ninth-place finish after running high as fifth in the event for his second top-10 finish in 2012.
With the K&N Pro Series East in action at the “Monster Mile” over the weekend with both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series, Presnell was 12th-quickest during practice on Thursday afternoon. But following overnight rain and additional precipitation Friday morning which delayed qualifying, Presnell fought a loose condition and wound up 20th out of 28 cars in time trials.
“We kind of dug us somewhat of a hole with our 20th-place qualifying effort, because you just hate to give up track positions in the starting lineup,” said Presnell on Sunday back at his SmokyMountains home in East Tennessee. “But after the way we’d practiced, I knew we had a good car and if I used my head and avoided trouble we’d be able to move into the top 10 pretty quickly during the race.”
With rubber laid on the track from practice washed away by rain, at start of the 150-lap event Presnell was being somewhat cautious as he began picking cars off patiently one-by-one, moving into 15th by lap 20. The first caution waved on lap 27 when Chase Elliott had a tire blow (racing) off the fourth turn, resulting in contact with the outside wall and damage to the right-front of the car which scattered pieces of a broken rotor along the front straightaway. Running 12th at the time, Presnell and others attempted to dodge the broken pieces, but due to cars around him Presnell ran over debris which led to concerns of possible suspension damage under the car.
Back under green flag racing conditions, Presnell passed CJ Faison on lap 38 to move into tenth in the running order. He advanced three positions to seventh by lap 60, and with the halfway break coming at lap 75 Dylan was fifth, trailing race leader Brett Moffitt, Corey LaJoie, Ryan Gifford and Brandon McReynolds.
“We were very fortunate to not have sustained significant damage there when Chase (Elliott) got into the wall and scattered pieces of a broken rotor along the front straightaway,” said Presnell. “I tried missing it (rotor pieces) but I ran right over top of debris and I could hear the banging underneath the car and just knew we’d probably torn something up. But thankfully we didn’t.
“Running in fifth at the halfway break, we were really pleased with our position because during the first 75 laps we were fighting tight conditions through the corners, and I just couldn’t pick the throttle back up like I needed to. My X Team Racing crew chief Jonathan Davis and car chief Coleman Pressley made (chassis) adjustments on the car during the stop, and once we went back green for the second half of the race I could really tell a difference in how the car drove.”
Wanting to take care of tires on the car for a strong run over the final 25 laps of the race, Presnell lost a couple of spots and dropped back to seventh as the race reached the century lap mark. During a long green flag run around the concrete high banks following a caution on lap 106 for Jesse Little, it appeared the race would go green to the finish.
But the yellow flag waved on lap 147 when LaJoie and McReynolds got together while battling for the lead, thus resulting in the rear bumper cover on LaJoie’s car falling off onto the racing surface.
Going past the scheduled 150 lap distance meant possible fuel-shortage issues for several competitors. When the caution appeared Presnell was running seventh, putting him inside of the fourth row for the double-file, green-white-checkered shootout to the finish.
With the steep banking all around Dover International Speedway, many times late race restarts result in fuel pickup problems. As the green flag waved the engine under the hood in Presnell’s Toyota Camry spit-and-sputtered on the front straightaway, trying to get fuel to the carburetor. In the process, Presnell was overtaken by two cars and settled into the ninth spot as the field raced off into the first turn. Unable to mount a charge to try and reclaim the positions he lost, Dylan brought the car home in ninth.
“After running high as fifth at the halfway break and even sitting in seventh there for the green-white-checkered deal, it was kind of disappointing to finish ninth,” Presnell stated, while reflecting on what could-have-been. “A top-10 finish is good, but I guess just from a competitive standpoint behind the wheel of the car, you really hate losing positions there at the end of the race. To be quite honest, I couldn’t believe it when the car didn’t pick fuel back up when the green flag waved. This makes the second straight year we’ve had the same thing happen on a late race restart.
“With the double-file restart and us running seventh at that point, I really believe if the car would’ve picked fuel up we could’ve come home with a fifth- or sixth-place effort. But overall we had a really good Amtrol/AmericanMountainRentals.com/X Team Racing Toyota Camry, and it was great having all the Amtrol guests at the track enjoying the race with us. I believe they really had a good time cheering for us. Running strong as we did, it just gives you (race team) a boost of confidence heading to the next race.”
The American Real TV 150 will air on SPEED on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 3 p.m. ET.
The next NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event for Presnell will be Nov. 3 at Rockingham Speedway, when the series visits the Sand Hills region of eastern North Carolina for the season finale championship showdown at “The Rock.”
Presnell PR
- FRIDAY FEATURE – Mike Greci: Veteran Presence - March 29, 2013
- Video: Danica Patrick wrecks out at Phoenix - March 3, 2013
- Danica Patrick Phoenix Accident Quotes - March 3, 2013