No. 34 Love's / Fleetguard Ford Mustang Dark Horse:
Michael McDowell and the No. 34 team qualified 14th for the 300-lap event at the Nashville Superspeedway this past weekend. Running long in Stage 1, McDowell cycled through to first, leading 31 laps, before coming to pit road for four tires and fuel with 14 laps remaining. He finished the stage in the 20th position. Staying out at the stage-break caution, McDowell went back to work picking up positions. A caution for the No. 42 gave Crew Chief Travis Peterson the chance to call McDowell to pit road to service the No. 34 with four tires and fuel. With lightning in the area, NASCAR was forced to throw the caution at Lap 136 and eventually brought out the red flag. After heavy rain and track drying process, NASCAR restarted the race and hour later. McDowell pitted for four tires and fuel plus some adjustments before finishing Stage 2 in the 16th position. In the final stage, McDowell reported a strange noise of a possible driveshaft issue, losing fifth gear. The day came to an unfortunate end when McDowell was forced to retire the car with a broken transmission in the final stage, scoring McDowell in the 35th position.
Start: 14th
Stage One: 28th
Stage Two: 16th
Race Result: 35th
DRIVER MICHAEL MCDOWELL:
"I just came off of turn four and I thought maybe something had broken the driveshaft or something like that, but it was actually in the transaxle. Something broke and shot a hole through the side of the case. That’s not what we wanted. We were salvaging a pretty decent day, so that was unfortunate."
No. 38 gener8tor Ford Mustang Dark Horse:
Todd Gilliland made his third NASCAR Cup Series start at the Nashville Superspeedway this weekend. Qualifying 32nd in the new looking No. 38 gener8tor Ford Mustang Dark Horse, Gilliland and the team settled for the long haul in hopes of picking up spots. An uneventful Stage 1 saw Gilliland pit under green for tires and fuel. Gilliland finished the stage in the 35th position. Staying out at the stage-break caution, Gilliland and the team kept an eye on the radar for rain. Continuing to fight, NASCAR threw the caution at Lap 136 and eventually brought out the red flag for lightning. After heavy rain and track drying process, NASCAR restarted the race. Back under green, Gilliland made the trip to pit road for four tires, fuel, and adjustments before finishing Stage 2 in the 19th position. In a caution filled final stage with a NASCAR Cup Series record, five overtime restarts, Gilliland managed to stay out of the wrecks to finish the race in the 17th position and keep his Top-20 finishing streak alive.
Start: 32nd
Stage One: 35th
Stage Two: 19th
Race Result: 17th
DRIVER TODD GILLILAND:
"That's probably one of the most chaotic races I've ever been in. Wish we had a better qualifying effort to have had capitalized on the chaos, but I'm still happy to come out of Nashville with a Top-20. Big thanks to gener8tor and all who came out to support us. We have a good stretch of races coming up with Chicago first, so I'm looking forward to what we have in store."
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