NASCAR Driver Finishes 19th in Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (October 16, 2016) – After 16 straight weeks of racing, NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) driver Ray Black Jr. finished off the long stretch of events with his ninth Top-20 finish of the season after placing 19th in the Kansas Lottery 300 on Saturday afternoon. The driver of the No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet Camaro and his SS Green Light Racing team had a hard fought weekend, having had to change out a motor between practice and qualifying and battle through a mid-race spin.
Black was fast from the start of the weekend, finishing 21st and 25th in his two practices at Kansas Speedway, but had trouble getting the car to fire up during the final session of the weekend. After further inspection, his team found the engine had a broken head and was forced to change motors before qualifying Saturday morning.
After making it to the second round of qualifying, Black lined up 23rd for Saturday’s main event. His No. 07 ScubaLife.com Chevrolet Camaro started out extremely tight, but did well as a long run car with further adjustments from the team.
On Lap 86, Black was passing fellow competitor Brandon Brown when Brown came down on Black, taking the air off his car and sending Black spinning across the infield. However, Black kept the car off the walls and prevented any damage from occurring other than two flat tires.
After pitting for four fresh tires and a slight adjustment, Black began moving his way back up into the Top-25. As the cautions increased during the remaining laps of the race, Black managed to avoid multiple wrecks on the track and race his way up into the Top-20 before finishing in the 19th position. The finish marks Black’s ninth Top-20 finish of his rookie season in the NXS.
“That was one of the more solid weekends we’ve had all year,” said Black. “We were fast from the start, we qualified well and finished well. The car got consistently better throughout the weekend, and by the end of the weekend we had it to where it handled really well on both long runs and short runs. We’ll keep working at it and grab a couple more solid finishes in the final three races this year!”
Black will now have two weeks off before returning to the track at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, November 5.
Fans can keep up with Ray Black Jr. by following him and his sponsor, ScubaLife, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @RayBlackJr and @TeamScubaRacing.
