HAMPTON, Ga. (February 28, 2016) – It wasn’t the weekend NASCAR XFINITY Series regular Ray Black Jr. was looking to have at Atlanta Motor Speedway as a blown right front tire cost him any chance at a win in the Heads Up Georgia 250. The Flagler Beach, Fla. local had been battling the handling of his No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet Camaro all weekend long but was finally getting the race car to handle the way he wanted when the on-track incident occurred.
Black, who qualified 27th for the race, was making headway through the field during the first 45 laps of the event. Shortly before Lap 48, he radioed into his crew that the car was driving like a “dump truck.” Within the next couple laps, the right front tire blew, forcing the team to the garage for repairs despite Black’s ability to keep the car from scraping up against the wall on the track.
After spending close to 45 laps repairing the damage to the No. 07 in the garage, Black returned to the track and ran some of his fastest laps of the entire weekend. He and the team fought hard to gain as much as they could out on the track before finishing the race in 33rd place.
“That definitely was not the race we were hoping for,” said Black. “The goal was to come in here and have a solid race and really get our season started. It was just a weekend where we seemed to be a little slow to start, and then once we got up to speed the tire blew. We made the most of it though, running some of our fastest laps later in the race. We’ll take what we learned here and move on to Vegas next week.”
The Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 5 will be next up for Black and Team Scuba Racing. Black previously raced there last October with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and finished in the Top-15.
Keep up with Ray Black Jr. by following him and his sponsor, ScubaLife, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @TeamScubaRacing and @RayBlackJr.
