John Wes Townley Chicago Review/Loudon Preview

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In: Xfinity Series News

John Wes Townley’s marathon day in the Windy City produced a 10th in Saturday morning’s rescheduled NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event and a season-best 13th in the NASCAR Xfinity Series 300 nightcap at the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway located in Joliet, Illinois, about 30 miles south of Chicago.

After torrential rain pushed Friday night’s 150 lap truck race to Saturday morning, Townley woke up early and lined up 13th in the No. 05 Zaxby’s Chevrolet. After running around eighth during much of the early laps, the Watkinsville, Ga. native appeared to catch a major break when he pitted just as Mason Mingus’ truck brought out a caution. Townley’s crew informed him to go ahead and pit as the leaders zoomed back to the caution flag.

Despite taking four tires in just under 14 seconds, Townley barely missed staying on the lead lap as he roared off pit road. Positioned to take the wave around under the yellow flag period, Townley’s spotter, Terry Cook, radioed to him before the green flag waved that the right-front tire had gone flat on his Silverado. Townley was forced to pit for two right-side Goodyear tires before the race resumed. That left him one lap behind the leaders.

As the race played out into a fuel mileage affair in the closing laps, Townley was able to nurse his Chevrolet home to a 10th-place finish and maintain eighth in the Truck Series driver standings.

Two hours later, Townley climbed aboard his No. 25 Zaxby’s Chevrolet and managed to qualify 16th for Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series 200 lapper.

Townley’s Camaro was stout throughout the night and was the class of the field among the non-Sprint Cup entries in the event.

During the closing laps while racing Chase Elliott for 13th, race leaders Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth caught him with just under two laps remaining. After being passed by Busch, Kenseth attempted a bonsai move entering Turn 3 coming to the white flag and passed both Busch and Townley in the process. But the extra burst of speed forced Kenseth to slow off Turn 4 to keep his Toyota off the wall. That allowed Busch and Townley to go low and pass Kenseth.

Busch went on to win the race while Townley finished a career-best 13th.

Afterwards, Kensenth, who finished second, wasn’t happy with the 25-year-old driver. But Townley held his ground late Saturday night when asked about the incident.

“I held my line the entire time when Busch and Matt caught me,” Townley said. “Those guys probably didn’t realize it, but I was racing Chase for 13th.

“So Matt does this dive bomb-type move in Turn 3 and passes me and Kyle. But he lost his momentum off Turn 4 and checked up. I had two choices: check-up and lose the position to Chase or dive to the inside and pass Matt. I stand by my decision to pass Matt because I wasn’t about to risk checking up and give Chase a chance to pass me.”

Townley will head north this weekend to compete in Saturday’s 175 lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. in the No. 05 Zaxby’s Chevrolet.

Dylan Lupton will drive the No. 25 Zaxby’s Chevrolet during Saturday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.

Athenian Motorsports PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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