It was a wild weekend in Texas for the Go Green Racing team. The team was encouraged with the speed the LOPA / Donate Life Texas Chevy was showing in first practice. Then final practice came around to for them to dial it in before qualifying on Saturday morning. Gase was coming out of turn two when the spindle in the right front broke which sent him into the wall. He sustained pretty substantial damage to the right side of the car which forced the team to pull the backup car out. Which in fact is the car the team plans on using next weekend in Phoenix.
The crew worked their tails off to get the backup car ready for Saturday morning’s qualifying session. They would use qualifying as a mini third practice session to try to get the backup car dialed in for the afternoon’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. After the time had run out in the first session of qualifying, Gase would qualify in the 30th position. However, after finishing their runs the team noticed a slight tire rub in the left rear. They would pull out of line and make some adjustments to fix the tire rub before the start of the race. In doing so, it would require them to start from the back of the field for unapproved adjustments. Despite the tire rub, Gase was encouraged with how the backup car handled in qualifying and was looking forward to the first NASCAR XFINITY Series in two weeks.
Turns one and two had caused trouble for many drivers all weekend long. Forcing the better half of six teams to go to their backup cars. Before the field could even complete one lap a caution had come out for a wreck in turn one. Gase had quickly found his way up to 23rd.
They would get the green flag once more on lap four and would only stay under the green for nine laps before another caution would come out. Under this caution Gase would communicate to CC Donahue that he was free on entry. With that in mind, Donahue would call him down pit road for a wedge adjustment and some fuel.
Another caution would come out a couple laps later but that would be the last of them in stage one. Between stages Joey would tell Donahue that the adjustments were better, but he could use some more and he was now getting tight center-off. He would bring the LOPA / Donate Life crew car down pit road for a fresh set of tires, fuel, and another wedge adjustment.
The second stage would get underway on lap 51. They would see the days longest green flag run to that point and would make it 29 laps before seeing the next caution. However, this caution was for Gase as he got turned going into turn two. He did a great job keeping the car off the wall so all that was need after the spin was fresh tires. Unfortunately after the caution he had found himself now two laps down. With the end of stage near, Gase would just ride around in efforts to save the tires and set himself up for the wave around to get one of those laps back.
Once the green checkered flag had come out concluding stage two. One of the cars ahead of Gase had stayed out which would end the possibility of him waving to get a lap back. Unable to wave, he would bring it down pit road for fuel only. Luckily, another caution would come out on lap 125 and this time he would be able to do the wave around.
The field would get the green flag once more with 67 laps remaining. Only three short laps later another caution would come out for the #20 of Christopher Bell. After falling two laps down earlier in the race, Gase would get the lucky dog and find himself back on the lead lap. A few laps before the caution he had relayed to Donahue that he was now a little snug in the center of three and four. So under the caution he would come to pit road for tires, fuel and a wedge adjustment.
After battling his way back on the lead lap trouble would find Gase once more on lap 147. Gase got hit from behind while passing another car out of turn two which caused Gase to go spinning and hitting the outside wall with the left rear of the car. This time the LOPA / Donate Life Texas Chevy sustained pretty heavy damage to the left rear. The crew did a great job fixing it up to get it back out on the track. Gase would luckily be able to limp it to the finish and salvage a top 22nd place finish.
It was a very frustrating weekend for Gase and the Go Green Racing team at Texas Motor Speedway. However, their 22nd place finish just shows the hard work these guys have put in and despite the adversity they were able to pull off another top 25 finish.
Only two more races to go in the 2018 season. Next weekend the team heads to newly renovated ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona for the Ticket Galaxy 200.
Joey Gase Racing PR
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