Dumarey Keeps Momentum Alive
The 18-year-old driver from
“It’s only my sixth race on an oval and we’ve been gaining every week. I think just getting the seat time has been a big help, but this team is really starting to work well together. The guys on the crew really understand when I’m explaining something to them, and we’re just clicking,” he said.
Dumarey struggled in the first practice session when a tire threw off the handling in his BODYCOACH.NET Chevrolet.
“The first practice we just had problems with our tires. In the second practice, we went out and were a second quicker. All the problems just went away with a different set of tires,” he explained.
Dumarey started the race from the 24th position. The strategy: stay out of trouble.
“I just drove a safe race without any risk at all. I was avoiding crashes and doing my best to pick up spots when I could.”
Long, green flag runs made up the first half of the race with Dumarey working his way through the field to 20th. He made most of his gains in the second half of the race despite seven caution periods slowing the event for 44 laps.
“I was conservative on the restarts because I know on some restarts some of these guys just go for it and they crash,” he said. “Our goal when we got here was to come out of this race with a good finish and to bring the car home in one piece. We reached both of those goals tonight.”
The final restart of the night came on lap 148 with a two-lap dash to the checkers. Dumarey lined up 16th for the drop of the green and gained a spot each lap.
“We just ran out of time and finished 14th. It’s my first top-15 so I’m pretty happy with that,” he said. “The car was really good.”
Sources: Penny Aicardi/Max Dumarey PR