Max McLaughlin earned a hard-fought 10th-place finish in Friday night at Iowa Speedway. “Mad Max” muscled the No. 1 Yazaki, Toyota Technical College Toyota Camry for 150 laps while fighting a loose condition in his debut at “The Fastest Short Track on the Planet”. The result is his fifth top-10 finish on the season and has him fifth in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship standings after seven of 12 events.
McLaughlin qualified fifth on Friday evening for his fifth-consecutive top-five starting position. Despite starting near the front, McLaughlin’s bout with an extremely loose handling condition began from the initial green flag. McLaughlin managed to stay inside the top-six until the first competition caution on lap 50. Crew chief Robert Huffman offered adjustments to help McLaughlin’s ill-handling machine and restarted ninth on lap 56.
The Yazaki, Toyota Technical College Camry remained on the loose side for McLaughlin for the ensuing 46 laps until he was able to make a pit stop under the lap 100 competition caution for four fresh tires. The Toyota Technical College students changed four tires on McLaughlin’s Camry as Huffman made additional adjustments. After restarting 11th, McLaughlin climbed as high as seventh before the loose condition thwarted his progress. “Mad Max” was able to maintain his position in the top 10 to capture his fifth-consecutive top-10 finish.
Max McLaughlin Quote:“We were so loose during the race. We fought loose during practice and never could hit the balance just right all day. We qualified well with our Yazaki, Toyota Technical College Camry and thought if we had some track position we could hopefully maintain it, but it just kept getting too free the longer we ran. Thanks to Yazaki, DNP, Hino, and all of our partners for having the students come out here and help us the last few weeks. I wish we were able to get them a better finish, but we’ll go on to Watkins Glen next week and see what we can do on the road course.”
Shige Hattori Quote:“I’m really proud of all the students’ effort the last two weeks. It was very difficult for them to come to the U.S. for two weeks, but they did a very good job. I really appreciate their effort and all our partners for giving them the chance to be a part of the program. They did a great job with our team at the shop, learned a lot, and they did a great job at the racetrack doing the pit stop. We hope they enjoyed the experience as much as we enjoyed having them.”
HRE PR
