"It's a nice bonus when we get to go to tracks where the driver's from," #57 crew chief Charles Ruggero said. "All the fans get behind our team and I'm sure Amethyst's got a little more motivation to go out and win."
Here's who's got the heat in their tires this session: 1) Amethyst Ashley (R) - 34.908 (120 laps) 2) Eric Monaco (R) - 34.910 (116) 3) Zachary Fitzwater Sr. (R) - 34.911 (119) 4) Cody Hagen (R) - 34.914 (119) 5) Dominic Carranza (R) - 34.945 (117) 6) David Davidson (R) - 34.957 (116) 7) Rampage - 34.966 (116) 8) Adam Mundinger (R) - 34.968 (114) 9) Stephen Willey - 34.980 (121) 10) Aidan Shepherd (R) - 35.003 (111)
Shepherd had to drop out of the race because of damage incurred from the strike and finished 41st.
"After doing our extensive review of the race footage, we did not see any reasonable explanation for Kraus' actions, not that there is much reason for what took place," NFRN Director of Competition Kris Neuert said. "Order needs to be established." Kraus was already in the deep end as he finished 37th after contact between him and de Barros in the oval that crashed him before the race's conclusion. His probation will apply at Van Zandt Super Speedway and Bumpdraftin' Superspeedway.
"Jonny's a good racer, a clean racer, and we back him entirely," crew chief Hunter Simms said. "He deserves to get to the playoffs, especially after last year's win. He just did what he had to do to get there and it seems to me like Dominic slipped and felt the need to cut off Jonny's momentum."
Carranza certainly wasn't thrilled about a win that got away. "We had a really solid car, but apparently the #6 thinks Australia is really upside down and right is apparently left," he said. "We will try and rebound next time and #6 better watch out because I want to rectify this." Although contact was definitely made, the NFRN does not plan to take present action. "We watched and reviewed the race in real-time and determined that driver error by the #24 set up what the incident became," NFRN Director of Competition Kris Neuert said. "The main mistakes were the line in the first backstretch kink and the braking zone in the second. He broke a lot earlier than cars should in that area and it doesn't appear the #6 was prepared for it, so we rest this incident as a result of racing occurrences." The two drivers made further contact on pit road later that lap. Neuert took note of the contact, and while he expressed that their relative position on the track and the timing of the stops led to it, both drivers are receiving warnings to not let this escalate further. One incident that might lead to a slightly harsher infraction was contact between Jett Kraus and Aidan Shepherd. The #34 was on the bumper of the #7 at the exit of pit lane and turned Shepherd into the inside wall almost immediately past the line. Kraus then pushed Shepherd across the track at the entrance of turn 1 ahead of Bruno de Barros who was not on a stop. Shepherd had to drop from the race because of that and finished 41st. Kraus finished 37th after a later accident.
"I can't say I never saw Kraus, because I did see him," he said. "I tried to pull something out of desperation and ended up causing some funny stuff. Feel bad for the guy, because I didn't want to cause such brouhaha, but it's racing, and it happens."
Kraus's DNF was his fifth straight, which breaks a record for most consecutive times not finishing the race in the NFRN Elite Cup Series, passing Lego Busch last season with four straight DNFs. On positive notes, all top-five drivers saw their season-best runs at Calder Park. "We had a great day," Rambo said after finishing 3rd. "The team pulled through the race and stayed out near the front away from the crazy action." "After we ran well at the NACS [NFRN Amateur Cup Series] race, I didn't think we could perform well at a road course, but we held our ground and had some luck during the race," 4th-place Noah Kim said.
"We reviewed a lot of road courses to host this race, and Pensacola offered a lot," NFRN commissioner Collin Denton said. "There's technical turns but also fast parts of the road course, and the oval allows for drafting and additional passing. It has the feel of the Daytona [International Speedway] Rolex 24 and I think that's what we really aimed for in choosing Pensacola."
The NFRN 24-Hour Race was announced earlier this season as an endurance race with teams of 3 to 5 league drivers rotating throughout the timed event. Signups remain open until the end of the NFRN Elite Cup Series regular season and is open to any driver signed up for current competition. Drivers can either sign up with a team (must have all drivers' names and emails at signup) or join a pool to be auto-assigned to a team when signups close. |
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