Tyler Markel went one lap earlier than Ashley after joining her on the first pit stop, and by the time the #57 was merging out of turn 2, Markel was blowing by at race speed.
"We knew we had to do something different if we wanted to win this thing," crew chief Dax Street said. "There were too few opportunities for this team to be as high as it was, and this time we wanted to capitalize." The gamble paid off, as a battle between Ashley and Jek Porkins kept the #48 ahead for the final stint of the race and claimed his first victory in 44 career starts. In trying to fight off Porkins and the lapped traffic running faster through the field, Ashley couldn't catch back up to Markel and finished runner-up. Despite not getting the win, it was a big points rebound after her late-race incident with Rambo and Jonny Gardner and Texas World Speedway. "I'm encouraged by the way we're running right now, but I'd like to see us run more like we did tonight than the past few races," crew chief Charles Ruggero said. "Top-20s may do us fine this round, but settling there won't make us championship contenders." The race ran caution-free, capping off a full weekend of racing that saw zero yellow flags, though an incident took place entering pit lane where Eli Bright hit the dividing wall and was hit from behind by Conor Mays, taking both out of the race. In the playoff battle, Porkins joined Ashley on the podium as well, and both negated poor finishes from Texas World that put the drivers 5th and 6th in the standings, respectively. Bruno de Barros, also in the top-10, solidified his spot at 43 points ahead of the cut line. Jake Baskinger and Julio Cesar kept in close proximity, now tied for the top spot one point ahead of de Barros. Drivers in danger of falling out in the Round of 16 include Season 1 champion Rampage, who finished 36th in the race and is eight points below the cut line. A possible top-five run at Texas World was hampered by a run-in with Mitchell Marc, costing him valuable points. "We just didn't execute tonight," crew chief Brent Aston said. "Our team has fast cars and there's no reason we should be finishing a lap down." Phillip Fry also dropped to last in points after contact on pit lane that put him five laps down. An average finish for Gardner provided assistance from last race's misfortunes, but he sits six points behind Reece Butcher for the last spot into the next round. Comments are closed.
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