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Ricky Finishes 12th in
First Hooters Pro Cup Start
Ricky Turner and the Turner Motorsports team headed to
Hickory Motor Speedway knowing they would have their work cut out for
them. Forty cars were in the pits all
hoping to grab one of the 28 starting spots.
Practice got started shortly after noon and immediately
Ricky and the crew knew they were going to have a shot at making the show. Ricky was laying down competitive lap times
compared to the rest of the field. The
team made several changes during practice trying to gain every little bit they
could.
Qualifying time rolled around and Ricky was set to go out
late in the order. After watching the
first half of the field qualify, it was clear that this was going to be an
extremely competitive field. Ricky
qualified with a lap time of 15.974.
This was good enough to put the William Bros. Lumber Company Chevrolet
24th in the starting lineup.
The 28-car field from qualifying was only separated by 0.317
seconds.
With the car in the show, Ricky was set to make his first
Hooters Pro Cup start of his career.
The main objective at the start of the race was to try to stay out of
trouble and keep the fenders on the car.
This would prove to be a challenge on this tight bullring.
Ricky was fighting an extremely tight racecar in the early
laps of the race and on the first caution he brought the car onto pit road for
an adjustment. After two more caution
periods, the race settled into a long green flag run and this proved to be what
the car really liked. Ricky began
making his way to the front passing numerous cars and turning lap times faster
than the leader Clay Rogers. Ricky was
able to move to just outside the top ten when the yellow flag flew on lap 134
and sent all the lead lap cars to pit road for 4 tires and adjustments. Ricky brought his car to the attention of
his Turner Motorsports crew. They
gained Ricky a couple spots on pit road and kept him on the lead lap.
Ricky was hoping for some long green runs in the second
half of the race. Unfortunately, the
second half of the race was marred with 9 cautions, which prevented the
Williams Bros. Lumber Company Chevrolet from coming in like it did in the first half of
the race. The numerous cautions also
forced Ricky to race in heavy lapped traffic.
Ricky was able to break into the top 10 late in the race, but fell back
to finish 12th.
Overall, it was a very successful 1st race for
Ricky Turner and the Turner Motorsports team.
A 12th place finish with minimal damage felt almost like a
win in this ultra competitive field.
The Lowe’s Foods 250 from Hickory Motor Speedway can be
seen on Speed Channel Wednesday July 12th at 4:00pm and Friday July
14th at 12:00pm.
Look
for Ricky Turner and the Turner Motorsports team at the next USAR Hooters Pro
Cup Southern Division event at Southern National Speedway in Kenly, NC on July
22nd.
Photos
From Hickory
Full
Race Results
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