Connor Mosack made his presence known in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut Saturday at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway. The 23-year-old pilot of the No. 18 OpenEyes.net Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing drove from his eighth-place starting spot to run as high as second in the inaugural Pacific Office Automation 147, taking over the position on lap 39. Mosack was putting his road-racing background in the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli to good use, deftly maneuvering his racecar on the wet and treacherous 1.967-mile, 12-turn road course. Those conditions created a logjam during a restart on lap 44 as the field headed into the chicane at the end of the frontstretch. Mosack was squeezed off the track, and despite straddling the curb that lined the inside of the chicane, NASCAR deemed Mosack had cut the corner and issued him a pass-through penalty. Mosack served the penalty on lap 47, which dropped him to 18th. Even with the setback, Mosack went to work, methodically picking off cars ahead of him to rise to 14th for another restart on lap 63. But the combination of a still damp racetrack, drivers on regular racing tires, and the tight confines of the track’s layout conspired for a multicar accident on lap 63 as the field departed the chicane and raced down the straight leading into turn four. With nowhere to escape from the cars spinning in front of him, Mosack was collected in the carnage. His OpenEyes.net Toyota GR Supra sustained heavy front-end damage and it had to be towed back to the garage, leaving Mosack with a 28th-place finish.
Connor Mosack, driver of the No. 18 OpenEyes.net Toyota GR Supra for Joe Gibbs Racing:
“I felt like we were having a good race. I knew I was leaving some speed out there, but we were just trying to make it to the end. Guys kept going off, so that just kept confirming to me that I didn’t need to go any harder and we ran top-three for a lot of the race. One of the restarts I got in the water on the left side and started wheel-hopping really bad and I had to go in the chicane. I talked to NASCAR before when we ran around here the other day, and they said if you miss the chicane but still go over that inside part of the curb, you would be OK, but they still made me do the drive through. I wasn’t real happy about that – telling me one thing and doing something else. Then we got in the back and they started wrecking left and right and we kept getting in the middle of it and finally they just checked up right in front of me in the straightaway. I had nowhere to go, but our Open Eyes Supra was really good most of the race, and I felt like we would’ve had a shot in the end, especially with a lot of the cars having damage.”
Notes:
● After the Pacific Office Automation 147, Mosack ran the ARCA Menards Series West race at Portland. He started third and finished second. It was Mosack’s fourth ARCA race of the season and the seventh of his career between the West and East divisions. However, it was his first ARCA race on a road course. Mosack has finished among the top-10 in all of his ARCA races this year, and among the top-five in his last three ARCA starts.
● AJ Allmendinger won the Pacific Office Automation 147 to score his 12th career Xfinity Series victory and his second of the season. His margin over second-place Myatt Snider was 2.879 seconds
● There were nine caution periods for a total of 26 laps.
● Twenty-one of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Next Up:
Mosack’s next event is the Calypso Lemonade 150 ARCA Menards Series race on Saturday, June 11 at Iowa Speedway in Newton. It starts at 9 p.m. EDT with live coverage on MAVTV and livestreamed on FloRacing. Mosack returns to the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli for the Mid-Ohio SpeedTour June 24-26 at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington. That event begins with an open test session on Friday, June 24, followed by practice and qualifying on Saturday, June 25 before culminating with the race on Sunday, June 26. Coverage will be livestreamed via SpeedTourTV.com and the SpeedTourTV page on YouTube.
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