ExtenZe Racing Shelby American Race Recap
Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile oval, Las Vegas, Nevada
Kevin Conway, No. 37 ExtenZe Ford Team
Starting Position: 39
Finishing Position: 36
Notes:
Leading NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year driver Kevin Conway made his first Sprint Cup start at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, walking away a 36th-place finishing spot. The result came after two spins that bookmarked an otherwise great learning day for Conway and the No. 37 ExtenZe Racing team.
A spin on Lap 3 sent the team down pit road for repairs to the front splitter for the second consecutive week. The team made quick repairs but lost time and laps on pit road. Once the team lost multiple laps, it was nearly impossible to get back into a position to gain spots.
Conway was fast for the majority of the race and had a strong car all day, but the lost laps kept that from showing on the rundown.
Conway had another spin on Lap 230, but again did a masterful job of keeping the car from getting heavily damaged. The No. 37 ExtenZe Racing team was able to finish the race in 36th as the highest finishing rookie. This was the second consecutive race that Conway won the Raybestos Rookie of the Race award.
Comments from ExtenZe Racing Team Driver Kevin Conway after the Shelby American:
“It was a really long day. We were fighting tight in practice and we made a ton of adjustments, but we never got a chance to go out on new tires in practice, so when we started that first run we were wrecking loose – literally. I spun and, fortunately, didn’t have too much damage at the beginning, but we got behind the eight ball as far as getting some laps down with that spin and were never really able to recover.
”We had some real good lap times and were real competitive, which was a huge improvement over last week, but track position-wise we were on our own lap and it didn’t really matter. And then I was trying to get out of Tony Stewart’s way and I didn’t give him quite enough room and got in the fence a second time. It was just a really long and frustrating day, but we finished.”