Williams rolled into 26th after a chaotic start. After two cautions in quick succession, he took the green flag on lap 32 in 25th. Dealing with both the heavier-than-usual traffic and a tight-in, loose-middle Chevy, he finished Stage 1 in 25th. He pitted for tires, fuel, and a packer adjustment before starting Stage 2 in 22nd, eventually finishing it in 24th. Following a full-service pit stop at the end of the second stage, Williams fired off in 22nd with 102 laps remaining in the race. The No. 11 Alloy Employer Services Chevy showed speed on the restart, with Williams mixing it up immediately in his first foray into the top 20. Soon after, however, the car’s handling went away, and Williams was relegated to 24th, one lap down, by lap 130. After the leaders began stopping for their final scheduled pit sequences, Williams rotated back to the lead lap. In a stroke of luck, the caution came out on lap 147 with Williams running in 14th as the last driver on the lead lap. He pitted for tires, fuel, and a spring rubber adjustment, restarting in 13th on lap 155. The yellow flag reappeared two laps later, and although Williams expressed concern about a potential left-front issue, the team decided to stay out and restart 13th. He quickly got shuffled back to 20th with 36 laps to go. After a spin brought out a caution with 23 to go, Williams pitted for his last set of sticker tires, fuel, and a host of adjustments. On consecutive restart attempts, cars wrecked while the field barreled into the first turn, and Williams benefited with a 13th-place restart with six laps remaining. He rocketed into seventh by planting his Chevy on the bottom, and he’d restart there for overtime following another wreck. With momentum on his side, Williams held on to finish in seventh (sixth, following a DQ), his best result of the season.
“We managed to have a good day. We needed that. It’s huge to have this finish… hopefully this is the start of a good streak. [The car] began handling weird later in the race, so I thought we were gonna struggle. It’s nice to have things end up going our way.”
Jumping six spots by lap three, Eckes radioed that the balance of the No. 16 Campers Inn RV was slightly free but better than the team had fired off in practice. Eckes stayed out during the two Stage 1-cautions but received right-front fender damage battling inside the top 10 with 10 laps remaining. He fell to 13th, where he finished the first stage. During the stage break, Eckes pitted for tires, fuel and adjustments. After starting the second stage from 11th, he fell to 16th where he finished the second stage, noting that the earlier damage was likely the cause of the now-inconsistent handling of the No. 16 Chevy. Eckes pitted for tires, fuel, and adjustments to help remedy the handling, before starting the final stage from 11th place. Eckes made a green-flag pit stop on lap 142 for tires and fuel, before an untimely caution came just a few laps later, trapping him a lap down. He took the wave around and restarted 23rd. The next caution came just two laps later. Eckes stayed out under caution, as crew chief Alex Yontz did not believe that newer tires would be enough of an advantage. Eckes restarted 20th with 38 to go, making it up to 14th when the next caution came out on lap 177. He pitted for tires, fuel, and an air pressure adjustment, radioing that he needed track position more than anything. Navigating through multiple cautions on restarts, Eckes fought back to earn a ninth-place finish.
“We struggled a little bit in practice, but we made some adjustments to fire off decent in the race. We got some body damage early on and just had to fight back from that for the rest of the day. All in all, coming home with a top-10 finish with the amount of damage we had isn’t a bad day.”
Although he fired off free, Dye radioed that the No. 10 Race to Stop Suicide Chevrolet was much better than his Stage 1 finish of 19th place. During the stage break, Dye pitted for tires and fuel and started the second stage from 17th place. Firing off much too free that time, Dye fell nine spots, finishing the incident-free second stage in 26th place. Dye radioed that he was loose on entry and exit, before pitting for tires, fuel, track bar, and wedge adjustments. He started the final stage from 26th place. Firing off much better, he gained seven positions in under 10 laps. Dye made his green-flag pit stop just one lap before the next caution came out, trapping him one lap down as a result. Another caution just two laps later saw Dye in the free pass position, putting him back on the lead lap to restart 22nd with 38 laps remaining. Back under caution six laps later, Dye pitted for his last set of sticker tires. He avoided multiple incidents on restarts, putting himself into his best position of the race when the caution flag came back out on lap 195. While under yellow after an overtime-inducing caution, the left-rear wheel on the No. 10 Chevy came off, as a result of possible damaged threads on the wheel, ending Dye’s race early. He was scored 31st.
“Not the day we hoped for. Our No. 10 Race to Stop Suicide Chevy was pretty loose throughout the race but we were in a good spot there at the end. Unfortunately we had a left-rear wheel come off the car under caution that ended our day right before going into overtime.”
