Go Green Racing scored themselves another top 20 finish last weekend at The Last Great Colosseum. With it being a short week, the NASCAR Xfinity Series started the weekend off with two practice sessions on Thursday afternoon. Joey was fighting a tight race car for most of the afternoon down in the PJ1. At the end of practice the Sparks Energy Inc team seemed to have found a good balance that was comfortable for Gase to navigate the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway. However, with the PJ1 being a guessing game Gase was extremely loose in qualifying. He ended the first round of qualifying with the 26th fastest lap time. It wasn’t the run they were expecting, but they were still confident they would put together a great run after finishing 16th back in April; and that’s exactly what they did.
The Colosseum started to fill in under the lights and JR Motorsports Elliot Sadler had given the command to fire the engines. Shortly after the Food City 300 had begun Gase was again very loose on both ends. He would battle his way through most of the stage holding down the 26th position. Race leader Kyle Busch was on his own planet rocketing around the World’s Fastest Half-Mile lapping everyone on the track but the top 11. However, on lap 69 he would blow a tire sending him into the wall ending his night.
While the track crews were cleaning up the wreckage Gase brought the Sparks Energy Chevrolet to CC Patrick Donahue for fresh tires, fuel, and a wedge adjustment. They would get the green with 8 laps remaining in the first stage. Gase ended up finishing stage one in 24th but he would report that he was still loose although that wedge adjustment did help. Between the two stages he would bring it back to Donahue for another wedge adjustment and some packer in the right front.
Stage two would begin on the 94th lap out of 300. A couple cautions would be drawn in the first 60 laps of the stage. On lap 159, Gase said he was really good through turns three and four but they still needed to work on getting better through one and two. Under the caution their plan was to wave pit road to get a lap back but race leader Kyle Larson had stayed out foiling those plans. However, they still elected to stay out.
They would get the green flag and stay green for the remainder of the stage. At the end of the stage Gase would come in for a slight wedge adjustment, a tire pressure adjustment, and fuel. He would restart the final stage from the 23rd position.
The final stage was relatively quiet for the first 60 laps. But with 42 laps remaining the first caution of the stage had come out for the #40 of Chad Finchum hitting the inside wall on the backstretch. Gase was pretty satisfied with how the car had felt so they would stay out once again despite having almost 100 laps on their tires.
Even with a heavy amount of laps on his tires, Gase fought his way up into the top 20 with only 20 laps remaining. One last caution would come out with two laps remaining in the Food City 300. He would restart in 20th but would pass a couple cars in the last 2 laps ultimately bringing it to the checkered in 18th.
It was a hard fought battle at the Colosseum but Go Green Racing completed a top 20 sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to road course racing as they head to Road America this weekend to take on the longest track on the circuit.
Gase posted on social media Friday night after the race, “P18 finish for our Sparks Energy Inc car tonight! Started off way loose at the start which got us a lap behind but after the first stage we were pretty decent. Also had an angel riding with us guiding us through the carnage.”
The angel he was referring to was a friend, former Donate Life Tennessee employee, and donor recipient Meredith Haga Fox. Meredith unfortunately passed away earlier this year and Gase wanted to honor her on the bumper of his car after working with her for years when traveling to Bristol. Meredith’s family joined Gase and the team Thursday and Friday night watching the Food City 300 from the pit box. “Meredith was an amazing person. We were very sad to hear about her passing. She impacted so many lives so we wanted to honor her and bring her to Bristol one last time,” said Gase.
