Jake Garcia tallied his best road course finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) on Saturday afternoon in his debut at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The driver of the No. 35 Quanta Services Chevrolet Silverado RST navigated wet track conditions to survive a chaotic event that saw 10 caution flags. Garcia sits 15th in the NCTS championship standings with two races remaining in the regular season.
Garcia was forced to start at the tail of the field after the No. 35 team fixed a brake issue from Friday’s qualifying session. The green flag waved over wet track conditions during steady rainfall from a thunderstorm which created a monumental challenge for every driver in the field. Garcia survived a pair of spins and avoided significant calamity in the event’s first segment. At the end of Stage 1 on lap 20, Garcia was scored in 29th position.
As the skies cleared and track conditions dried, crew chief Mark Hillman and the Quanta Services team put on slick tires during the caution period. The team also aided Garcia with adjustments to the rear shocks and chassis to increase rear grip. Garcia turned up the wick as track conditions dried throughout the second stage by advancing as high as 21st. He ended Stage 2 on lap 40 in 23rd position.
After restarting 23rd on lap 41, Garcia quickly joined the top-15 on lap 43 and looked to continue his march forward. A restart on lap 49 resulted in physical racing which saw Garcia get briefly knocked off course and back to the 20th position. Regardless of the adversity, Garcia recoiled and once again sliced his way inside the top-15 by lap 63 and as high as 13th with three laps to go. However, contact on the final lap while racing the No. 43 and No. 4 trucks knocked Garcia off line and resulted in a 16th-place finish.
Jake Garcia Quote:
“The rain was a huge challenge for us. We were able to make it through the first stage and all the craziness without any major issues. Once the track started drying out and we put slick tires back on, our Quanta Services Chevrolet started to show some speed. I just kept fine tuning things inside the truck and we were able to make it inside the top-15 late in the race. I thought we had the pace to run inside the top-10, but the contact on the last lap there cost us a couple spots. We definitely improved from COTA, so today was a step in the right direction for our team.”
McAnally Hilgemann Racing PR
