Josh Reaume and the No.23 Lilly Trucking team came into Friday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) event at Kentucky that lightning would strike twice. Rick Ware Racing was coming off an impressive third place finish in last weekend’s race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI with driver Kevin O’Connell.
Sadly for Reaume, the Redlands, CA native struggled all weekend long with a very tight Chevrolet Camaro. After qualifying 38th with a lap of 32.699/165.143mph, Reaume and the Rick Ware Racing Team made many gains throughout the race weekend. But all those gains got crumpled when an overheating issue forced the No.23 to the garage on lap 120, ending his night early.
When the green flag waived for Friday night’s JR. Elliott Hero Fund 300 at the Kentucky Speedway, it was not on a positive note. Reaume was issued a black flag for changing lanes before coming to the start finish line, causing him to serve a pass through penalty. After the first caution of the night flew on lap 42 for debris, Reaume was already multiple laps down and complained of a “really tight” car.
Crew Chief George Church brought Reaume down pit road for adjustments. However they weren’t enough to aid the rookie in marching through the field. Reaume ran solidly in the 35th position most of the evening.
On lap 115 Reaume keyed the radio saying its “overheating, I’m bringing it in”. This ended the evening early for the 23 year old in only his third career NNS start resulting in a 35th place finish.
Quote:
“Our car was really fast on the restarts with low air pressure. That just shows what we needed, which was to free it up. It just got way to tight on exit, then a snappy loose condition on exit. Unfortunately I made a rookie mistake on the initial start and jumped out of line. I made up a ton of positions but NASCAR called me down pit road for a drive through penalty, and then I got caught speeding. It went downhill from there, and just threw our whole race off. The Rick Ware Racing guys worked hard all weekend and I can’t thank them enough. Then our motor started acting up and we made the call to park it before it came apart. I hate it for the team, and the guys at the shop, but I’m hopeful we got all my bad luck out of the way and we will move on to Chicago”.
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