Nashville
No 79 - Brian McEvoy
"Had high hopes coming into Nashville considering I finished 4th here last season. This race was in the afternoon vs last season's race was at night. Track definitely had less grip and car was more difficult to drive. Did better than I thought I would in qualifying with a P8 effort. This track has a lot of tire wear to the point where lap times will drop off 2 seconds over the course of a run. At the start I was focused on conserving my tires. Finally, was able to settle in about 15th place and rode there until the first pit stop on lap 45. I broke the race in to 3 equal segments of 45 laps which worked out well considering the race went green the entire 135 laps. There were a number of drivers who did 3 stops instead of the 2 most drivers did. This made for many cars running different speeds most of the race and hard to know exactly where you were at in the big picture. Was very strong late in my runs and was able to gain spots and track position it felt like. As the last 45 laps unfolded it appeared I was in about 13th place. Between the track temp dropping and my tire wear being better than expected I pushed a bit harder the stint. I was able to run down a couple of cars and it appeared I would finish 11th. However, a car in the top 10 ran out of gas on the last lap and I was able to get around him to finish 10th. Overall, very happy with another top 10 run to start the season. Thanks to GearUp, Franklin Motorsports and Latham-Grafix for their support. Thanks to Tipton for helping us out tonight despite tough circumstances. Thinking of him and his family."
No 6 - Michael Politis
"I kept my nose clean and got a solid result. I was strong first stint, but not as strong on the last stint. Brad put it on pole and had a chance to get even better result than he did. Brian was solid with his pace and his pit stops ultimately getting us the best result for the team. Timothy had a quite night didn't have the best track position to operate from. Rob drove great as well. Despite difficult circumstances for Tipton he hung in there with us and kept the team in gear. Great overall result for the team! Will catch these guys in Japan!"
No 86 - Brad Herman
"Started the night great winning the pole and leading the field to the green, but when the race started i couldnt find my groove and started fading and getting stuck on the outside, got tagged in the left rear and had to make a big save which inevitably but me back to about 25th, i calmed down and started saving and hitting good laps and with good pit strategy for my team and tip on the box i was able to fight back to 15th, horrible execution on my part on one of my better tracks, need to capitalize on those moments if you want to win the big one at the end of the year. Shout to GearUp as well for being the most organized team I've been on!"
No 5 - Timothy Latham
"Not a good night for me. Qualified worse than I wanted to just like last time. I didn't have any cautions to keep us bunched up so it was up to the driving on the track. Overdrove the car a few times and wasted some tires. Pit strategy netted me a few spots but other than that it was pretty subpar. Couldn't get into much of a rhythm. Not too much more to say about it. P11. On to Twin Ring Motegi. Finished 3rd there last season so I'm hoping to bounce back next week. Thanks to all the guys at ReppSports and Gearup for making this possible and I hope I can get them some better coverage next time."
No 56 - Rob Norfleet
"Tough race! Bad qualifying. No cautions. Just couldn't get any track position and had to run my car too hard trying to make time and hoping for a caution. Out of rhythm tonight in Music City! Shoot for a better run next week."