ExtenZe Racing Brickyard 400 Race Report
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 2.5-mile oval, Speedway, Indiana
Kevin Conway, No. 34 ExtenZe Ford Fusion
Starting Position: 42
Finishing Position: 34
The steaming hot weather was grueling for everyone at the Brickyard 400 events all weekend, and heat also played a direct role in NASCAR leading Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year driver Kevin Conway’s race result. The No. 34 ExtenZe Racing Ford overheated and blew the engine on Lap 124 of the 160-lap event, forcing the team to retire early from the race.
Up until that point, the No. 34 ExtenZe crew had been working hard to improve the handling of the car and put Conway in a position to lead a lap making him the first Raybestos Sprint Cup Series Rookie to lead a lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since Jamie McMurray led twice for 22 laps in 2003. He also collected five bonus points in the process.
But in a race with multiple wrecks and lots of debris accumulating on cars’ grills, the No. 34 ExtenZe Ford Fusion started to overheat and could not recover. In his first Brickyard 400, the rookie Conway finished 34th and secured his 19th straight Raybestos Rookie of the Race award. Up next for Conway and the ExtenZe Racing team is Pocono Raceway for the running of the Pennsylvania 500 on Sunday, August 1st.
Comments from ExtenZe Racing Ford Team Driver Kevin Conway after the Brickyard 400:
“We learned a lot. We really struggled early in the race. Our car was great on the short runs. It’d really take off. And on the long run there, we just didn’t have enough grip in the right rear once it got some laps on it. We really worked on the car to get better for the long run and we kept getting better, better and better each run and getting faster and faster. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole but we were still good enough to get a top-30. But everybody kicked up a ton of grass out there on those restarts and we just started overheating and it ended up blowing up.
“The motor was hot and I was telling them it was going to blow up so there’s not a lot you can do at that point but just ride it out until it goes. We tried to come in and cool it down, but once you cook ‘em, they’re cooked.”