Max McLaughlin continued his climb up the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East standings with a seventh-place finish on Thursday evening at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS). “Mad Max” earned his best finish in two starts at “Thunder Valley”, vaulted himself into third place in the point standings, and extended his streak of top-10 finishes to seven-straight races.
The driver of the No. 1 Mohawk Northeast Toyota Camry began the 150-lap contest from the fifth position, but immediately battled a loose condition during the opening 51-lap segment. Crew chief Robert Huffman called McLaughlin to pit road for four tires and chassis adjustments to aid his balance at the first competition caution on lap 52. McLaughlin radioed his team that the Mohawk Northeast Camry’s handling improved while running inside the top 10 following the pit stop in the race’s second segment.
The 19-year old rookie began the final segment on the lap 106 restart in 10th position and methodically worked his way forward during the last 45 laps with one of the fastest cars on the racetrack. “Mad Max” managed to advance to seventh inside of 10 laps to go to secure his seventh-consecutive top-10 result of the season.
Max McLaughlin Quote:“We were too loose for the first segment and managed to get the balance close enough to where we were one of the best cars out there the last 40 laps. I sure would have liked to start a little closer on our balance with the Mohawk Northeast Toyota, because we made it quite a bit better during the race. It’s good to gain a spot in the points and get out of here with a good finish. We’ll go on to Gateway next week and hopefully unload close so we can be in contention for another win.”
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