A Chicago Top 10 Yields a Good Points Night for Joey Coulter
9/14/2014GMS Racing
Race Report
Joey Coulter Scores Top-10 Finish at Chicagoland Speedway
Joey Coulter drove GMS Racing's No. 21 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet Silverado to an eighth-place finish in the Lucas Oil 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday evening. Rain canceled qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Friday at Chicagoland Speedway, so the starting lineup was based on the NASCAR rule book, combining speeds from Thursday's two practice sessions. After rain played havoc at the Joliet, Ill. facility which delayed the race by a day, Coulter started the event from the 11th position, and fought changing track conditions throughout the 150-lap race. On Lap 10, he reported that he was looking for rear grip everywhere on the 1.5-mile track. When the yellow flag was displayed on Lap 30 for a competition caution, crew chief Jeff Stankiewicz called Coulter to pit road for two right-side tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. The Miami Springs, Fla., native restarted the race on Lap 35 from the sixth position. By Lap 50 Coulter was in the 11th-place. He made his second pit stop of the event during a caution period on Lap 63 for four tires, fuel and adjustments to improve a free-handling condition. By the race’s halfway mark, Coulter was 10th. While pitting for routine service under green-flag conditions on Lap 111 for four ties, fuel and an adjustment, Coulter was caught on pit road when the yellow flag flew on Lap 113 as the field was cycling through green flag-pit stops. The 24-year-old restarted in 10th-postion on Lap 118. During the closing laps, Coulter battled his way to the eighth position, where he finished the race and marking off his first top-10 at Chicagoland Speedway in four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts at the track. The finish helped Coulter gain valuable points in the championship driver point standings, and he is now in the sixth position.
Start - 11 Finish - 8 Laps Led - 0
Joey Coulter Quote:
“It was definitely a pretty wild race for our GMS Racing team. We started off just way, way loose and lost a bunch of track position. We came in, took two at first, then we got a little bit of track position back and still just stayed really loose. So we had to take a really big swing at it and we got the No. 21 Allegiant Travel Chevrolet Silverado really good there at the end.
“It was a pretty solid night for our Allegiant Travel Chevrolet team. We just have to keep putting them (races) together. We’ve got to get closer to the top-five every week and we need to knock out a win here before the season is over.”