Here is what drivers had to say following night one of the inaugural Halloween Nationals at Portsmouth Raceway Park with the American Late Model Iron-Man Series:
Ricky Thornton Jr. — Winner: “Obviously, you never want to see a competitor get a flat let alone Terbo leading. Obviously, he had a little bit better car than we did. He put himself in position just unfortunate luck for him. I definitely know how that goes this year.
I felt like our car was really good from the get go. I moved up and I got back by Rice and then, ‘Man, I’m just trying way too hard right now.’ So I slowed myself back down, moved to the bottom, and just kept saving. And really I didn’t feel like my pace picked up just those guys slowed down that much more. This place is so silky, gritty that it’s easy to hurt your tires. And I figured if those guys were going to go balls out right away I was going to wait and save and try to do something at the end.
I love coming to this place. Hopefully, next year we get to come back again.
Everyone at Koehler Motorsports working super hard. Feel like our program’s been really good the second half of the year. Got to thank Tharp and Seth, Bryce, KP, everyone at the shop, like I said, working super hard trying to fine tune our stuff. I feel like really the past few weeks we haven’t been changing much on the race car. That only happens when your stuff is really good. Big shoutout to Evan. He came Mod racing with us this weekend instead of going to Charlotte. Hopefully, he has a good Main here coming up. Elite Ready Mix, Capital Waste, Hoker Trucking, Knight’s Companies. My wife, my kids, I wish they were here tonight, but they’re back at home in Iowa.
Josh Rice — Finished 2nd: “This place is normally a place I’m not very good at. So come here and run second is cool. Ricky’s hot right now. His stuff’s really good.
I knew that top was going to be down here and then getting into 3 I couldn’t see nothing so I was just making sure I was turned and then I about spun there. Then I just got back down in that middle and kind of followed him around. I knew I was going to have to get it all I could and then it got too high.
I don’t know what happened there on that last restart. I just took off really good. I think I was a little bit harder on tires than everybody.
Just got to get a little bit better tomorrow. I think we’ll have a good shot at it. Hopefully, Nick’s not too mad at me. He kind of messed up off 2 and then tried to come down, down the back shoot, and I used him up a little bit.
Just can’t thank all my guys for sticking with it. Like I said, I’m pumped to come here and run second. Hopefully, we can get one spot better tomorrow.
Obviously, James Rattliff for everything. There’s a long list of them. Jeff March with Glenwood. We had our Vic Hill in tonight. Big Al, Keltner Contracting, Chain Locker, Berea Collision, JRR Auto Sales, JRR Trucking, KAG, Lonkard Construction, BC Fluid Power, Jessie’s Insurance, MGL, Rice Excavating, Stakt Products, Puremax Racing Oils, Sunoco Race Fuels. I think that’s everybody. I just can’t thank them all enough. And try to get a little bit better.
Drake Troutman — Finished 3rd: “Had a really good car tonight. Probably went a little bit with the wrong tire. All-in-all it was a solid night. Congrats to Ricky on the win. It was fun racing with Josh there.
Got to thank all my crew guys. My car owner: Jerry and Jerry Jr.’s both here tonight. All these sponsors on this race car. Thanks to the track and the Iron-Man Series for putting this deal on for us and be excited for tomorrow.
0 Comments