Early Races Bode Well for Team
The team made it's opening start at Kansas Motor Speedway this week under the lights. The initial run in the iRacing Truck Series and Class A Cup Series was the first pair of officially sanctioned races of the 2017 year in those cars.
Only two cautions meant long runs under green at Kansas in the MM Sennheiser/Eddie Bauer Ford Fusion tonight. The team went into the race with a bare bones setup with only minor tweaks to provide for a more loose car. after the early cautions, it was clear that with the crew chief should have asked for more fuel on those yellow stops. This would make no difference however, as majority of the field hit pit road for green flag stops once tires became too worn. The Mad Motorsports fusion hit pit road and nearly spun from scrubbed tires and too much speed. The team chose to take two tires and the minimum amount of fuel. This chose to be a good and bad call. The car filed through green stops and ended up in 6th position with no opposition behind for several seconds. The 18 MM entry battled Joseph Nover in the #12 Tobasco car for precious top 5 position. MM has the position for a single turn before the car tightened, forcing a change in race line which would lead the #18 to fall back. The race finished under green flag with the MM Fusion hanging on to maintain lead over the 7th place runner. "Overall this was an impressive start for us, considering we have been off the track for over a year, and especially because we never spent time in this race car or open setup series before." team management said of the race. The team hopes to enter at least one other Class A Monster Energy Series race this week at Kansas, building on the engine debuted tonight.
Meanwhile, last night the team brought out the Majestic Athletics Toyota Tundra for it's debut. The team chose not to qualify and started in the last position, 23rd. The race was caution filled and the team was fortunate to leave with no incidents. After avoiding a mid-race wreck on the backstretch, the #24 Tundra was able to hold off fellow competitors to keep 13th until a yellow flag ending. "We aren't going to dwell on the finish just yet. The Class C Camping World Truck Series will likely be among our most frequently run. So this leaves plenty of time to work on consistency and learn each track" the crew chief said in post-race. "We won't get the track down this first time around, but next season we'll have learned how to manage the car and track."
