After the NASCAR circuit had passed through Phoenix in the spring, ISM Raceway started their $178 million renovation. Part of the renovation was flipping the track by moving the new start/finish line to the “old” backstretch and right before the “dog leg”. Thus making turn one the old turn three and turn two the old turn four.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series would get their first taste of the renovation during two practice sessions on Friday afternoon. Most of the afternoon the Donate Life Arizona team was working on tightening Gase up on initial throttle. About halfway through the second session the crew got the Donate Life Arizona Chevy to where Gase felt comfortable with the balance. Therefore they parked it for the day to get ready for qualifying on Saturday morning.
Race day had finally come and first up on the agenda was qualifying for the Whelen 200. After Gase’s first run in qualifying he reported that he was way too loose. So he would come back to pit road for an adjustment. Once it had cooled down he would head out for another run (which he said he was still way too loose but it was better), and would put himself into the second round. After his run the next round Gase would finish qualifying the Donate Life Arizona Chevy with the 21st fastest lap time.
The cars would fire up their engines and take the track for the second to last race of the 2018 season. For the third straight week there would be a caution on the very first lap of the race. After the first lap blunder they wouldn’t see another caution until the end of the stage. Gase would tell CC Donahue that he was too loose on throttle on both ends. Therefore Donahue called him to pit road for two rounds in the left rear, a tire pressure adjustment, and fuel.
Once the field went back to green to get the second stage started they would remain that way for the entire length of the stage. However, 15 laps into the stage Gase reported to Donahue that he was still too loose. He would fight to end of the stage and would get the lucky dog putting him back on the lead lap. After the stage had concluded Donahue called for another wedge adjustment, tires, and fuel for the Donate Life Arizona Chevy.
After a relatively clean first couple of stages the final stage would start to get a little dicey. On lap 136 a caution would come out for the #13 of Tyler Hill spinning on the backstretch. Then, 8 short laps later another caution would come out for the #60 of Ty Majeski. While all of these cautions were bringing the field to a halt, Gase had said that the car was pretty good at the beginning of the run but it started to get free on entry the longer they went. So he would bring it back to the Donate Life Arizona team for one more wedge and a tire pressure adjustment.
Lastly, with 46 laps remaining the final caution of the race would come out for the #8 of Tommy Joe Martins. After caution laps were into count it would be a 38 lap shootout to the finish. Gase would bring his Donate Life Arizona Chevy to the checkered flag in 22nd.
Sunday morning Gase posted, “Decent P22 finish for us yesterday. Had decent speed all day but the last run just got too free on entry. First race in awhile that went somewhat smooth for us. It was a pleasure to be able to honor Micky Russell and host his family thanks to Donate Life Arizona!”
The Go Green Racing will cap off the 2018 NASCAR XFINITY Series season at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Championship weekend will officially kick off Friday afternoon with two practice sessions and finish off with the Ford EcoBoost 300 on Saturday.
Joey Gase PR
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