After spending much of the series’ final two off weeks with his family at Walt Disney World®, Eric McClure and the Hefty Racing® team arrived at Texas Motor Speedway for the final stretch of the 2011 Nationwide Series season. Despite starting the 200-lap event in the 39th position, the 32-year-old driver was able to wheel the No. 14 Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet to a 24th-place finish, his second-best effort at the 1.5-mile speedway.
“Although I would have liked to have finished better, our result wasn’t bad when you consider all of the bad luck we have had this season. It’s like we have to go two steps backwards before we can go one step forward. We battled a loose racecar for some of the race then made it tight, but the guys kept working on it and we were able to come out of it with a decent finish.”
Starting the race from the 39th position, McClure was scored in the 34th position when the event’s first caution flag was displayed on lap 3. Although the car was loose on entry, the team elected to stay out during the caution period hoping the car would become “tighter” once the fuel level diminished. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case so, when the No. 14 Chevrolet came to pit road on lap 50 under green flag conditions, the crew changed four tires, added fuel, and made air-pressure and chassis adjustments to help the car’s drivability on entry. Once all pit stops were complete, McClure was scored in the 34th position, two laps down to the race leader.
As the race progressed, McClure continued to battle a car that displayed loose handling conditions on entry. When the second caution flag was displayed for debris on lap 90, the Hefty Racing® team took the opportunity to bring the Hefty® BlackOut™/Reynolds™ Chevrolet to pit road for tires, fuel, and adjustments. While running in the 31st position, the event’s third caution flag waved on lap 115. As McClure was reporting improvement in the car’s drivability during the last run, the team decided to stay out and take the wave around, which placed the driver in the 28th position when the race resumed on lap 119.
Despite working his way up to the 23rd position during the long green flag run that ensued, McClure had to eventually forego the position to visit pit road for four tires and fuel. Although the Virginia driver returned to the track in the 28th position, he was able to advance four positions in the final 45 laps to finish the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge in the 24th position.
TriStar Racing PR
