Cheap Fast Racing @ Pacific Office Automation 147

Finally getting a chance to recap our amazing NASCAR Xfinity Series Debut.

Friday was Practice and Qualifying. Practice was a mix of wet and drying track. The RSS Racing team gave us an amazing car right off the trailer. First time in the car was during practice and ended up p15. The car was really feeling good. We spent the 5 hour break enjoying all our supporters. We held a private autograph session at the More of Everything Racing Collectables Booth. Huge Shout out to Brian for letting us sell our merchandise and holding this amazing session. Shortly after, we got to take part in the official NASCAR Autograph session. Surrounded by all the amazing drivers and fans. The fans of Portland and the PNW came out in force to show their support for NASCAR in the Pacific Northwest.

Qualifying started around 5pm. The track was dry and the team decided to put a dry setup on the car. Unfortunately we just couldn’t find the pace or get comfortable with the dry setup. Ended up P31. After Qualifying and we noticed we had a rear end seal that was leaking. This would mean we had to pull the car out of line and start at the back of the field. Lucky for us, a lot of teams did the same and we didn’t actually loose our starting position.

Race Day was Saturday. Super excited to see what we could do. Rain rain rain was the forecast and having a lot of experience in the rain, we really hoped this would play to our advantage. Race would start really jumbled up, we were almost a half a lap behind, along with several others when the green flag flew. We slowly began to work our way forward. Visibility and weather were definitely factors in trying to find our comfort zone. About mid way through the first stage, we spun going into turn 1. Thinking the spin would count as our stop, must stop and continue if you missed turn 1, we continued through the pad. Unfortunately this did not count as a stop and we received a Drive Thru Penalty which would end up putting us a lap down. Fighting to stay only on lap down with 2 to go in Stage 1, Leader Ty Gibbs would pass us setting us back another lap. Definitely no the start to the race we wanted. Car was not quiet to our liking but adjustments can be made at the end of the stage. Stage 1 over and sitting 37th 2 laps down :(

AS we pitted for the first time, the crew made some major changes to the car. Heading out of the pits, Darren really like the way the car felt on the pace lap. We would go back to green for the start of the second stage. This us were everything went wrong. Everyone made it cleanly through Turns 1 and 2 but between 3 and 4, 2 cars got together. Another one was collected trying to avoid, then another, and maybe even one more.. Trying to stay out of any mess, Darren fell towards the bac. While trying to slow to miss all the carnage, we got a little bump and pushed Darren into the rear of a car stopped trying to avoid the wreck. This ended up pushing the Hood up, moved the radiator and pushed the hose into the drive belt. This was ultimately the end of our Debut. We would end the weekend P37.

While this may not be the result we were looking for, the support we received from everyone of the fans was incredible. The cheer during driver introductions put chills down our spine. Our partners were incredible and can’t thank each and every single one enough.

We hope to this again in the future. And for anyone out there reading this, remember that if you surround yourself with the right people, and never stop working and dreaming, dreams really do come true.

Thank you again Willamette Valley Hops, Benchmade Knives, Hollywood Beverage, Aviation Gin, Lucky Dog Racing League and Rose City Distilling.