Lee Strong at Salem; Cunningham Looks Ahead to Talladega
MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 2, 2017) — Shane Lee capped off a strong weekend for Cunningham Motorsports with a fourth-place finish in the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway. After starting in the second spot, the Newton, N.C. native played on a late race pit strategy that gave him his second top five finish this season.
“We had a strong day and I’m pretty happy with where we finished this race,” said Lee. “I raced the car pretty hard right off the bat and I could’ve conserved tires a little bit better, but once we came in and got four new General Tires, we really had a lot of speed and were able to get back into the top five. Overall it was a solid day…it was a good points day and we’ll take what we learned here and get ready for the next one.”
Lee stayed in contention throughout the day, battling lap traffic and long green flag runs to stay within the top 10. When a caution came on lap 130, the No. 22 Big Tine Ford Fusion came in and got a new set of tires and filled up on Sunoco race fuel. Restarting on the inside line, Lee moved into the fifth position and worked his way into fourth with 10 to go.
“That pit stop really helped us out,” said Lee. “We were able to really get the car moving once we got fresh tires and a fourth-place finish isn’t bad. I’m happy for my teammate (Dalton Sargeant) on the win…those guys definitely deserved it. I think this entire weekend really showed once again how strong this Cunningham Motorsports team is.”
Lee had a strong outing at Daytona to kick off the 2017 season, taking third and giving him his best career finish in ARCA.
“It’s every kid’s dream to win at a place like Daytona or Talladega,” said Lee, “so hopefully this weekend I can build on this Cunningham momentum and bring the No. 22 Big Tine Ford Fusion into victory lane. We had a great run at Daytona earlier this season so we know we have a good car and I think we’ll be in contention to win again.”
Teammate Dalton Sargeant didn’t have a bad run himself at the first superspeedway race this season, coming in fourth, right behind Lee.
“Daytona was a fun race and a great way to kick off the season,” said Sargeant. “We obviously had a great last race getting the win at Salem and hopefully we can go for two in a row this weekend. Cunningham always brings the best equipment they have and we’re always in the mentality that we can win any race we go to and Talladega is no different. We’ll have Big Tine on the No. 77 again for this race and I would love to be able to get them another win.”
The General Tire 200 will kick off Thursday with an all-day tech inspection. All on-track activities will happen on Friday, May 5 with practice in the morning from 9:30-11:30 a.m. EDT and General Tire Pole Qualifying at 3:30 p.m. EDT. The 76-lap race is set to start at 6 p.m. EDT and will air live on FS1.
Keep up with Cunningham Motorsports on Facebook and Instagram (@CunninghamRace) and on Twitter (@Cunningham_Race). Head to www.cunninghamrace.com for more news. You can follow Shane and Dalton on social media as well. Follow Shane on Facebook and Twitter (@ShaneLeeRacing) and on Instagram (@Shane_Lee00). Follow Dalton on Facebook (@DaltonSargeantRacing) and Twitter and Instagram (@DaltonSargeant).
Big Tine is manufactured in Rockville, IN and was introduced to the market in 2010. Big Tine is the only feed supplement on the market that utilizes the power of Whitetail InstitutesTM 30-06 mineral and vitamin supplement for year-round support management of a healthy, flourishing herd. For more information on Big Tine, products or where to buy visit us at www.bigtine.com on Facebook @BigTine and on Instagram @BigTineOfficial.
Sources: Katie Wernke/Cunningham Motorsports PR