YankeeRacer.com

Beaver Falls, NY — In just his sixth NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch East Series race, James Pritchard, Jr. has his first top ten finish. Pritchard, driving the No. 41 Mannings USA Chevrolet for James Pritchard Motorsports, finished tenth in Saturday’s Edge Hotel 150 at the Adirondack International Speedway in Beaver Falls, N.Y.

Pritchard, 18, found the half-mile circular track to be similar to Mahoning Valley Speedway, where he raced prior to moving up to the NASCAR touring series.

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Beaver Falls, NY — Mike Olsen looks forward to the trek up north to Adirondack International Speedway every year. With a large contingent of Car-Freshner employees on hand, the 39-year-old driver strives to give his biggest supporters a strong performance in the Busch East Series’ closest visit to the companies Watertown, NY headquarters. All indications were pointing to him achieving that goal. Olsen led 13 laps in the early-running of the Edge Hotel 150, but fell off the pace at lap 134 while battling for the fourth position.

“Sometimes it’s with you and sometimes it isn’t,” Olsen said of his luck. “I’ve been a few years without any mechanical problems and this year I’ve got them. Tonight the fuel pump broke, and unfortunately, it happened late in the race and we just ran out of time trying to get it running.”

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Nashville, TN — Jeff Anton has strung together consecutive top-ten finishes for the first time this year, following up last weekend’s tenth place finish at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway with a seventh on Sunday night in a 150-lap NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch East Series event at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anton, driving the No. 30 Baran Institute of Technology/Engineered Floors, Inc. Chevrolet, entered the Music City 150 in a tight points battle that involved drivers running sixth through thirteenth in the standings, so every position gained or lost on the track was important. The venue was new to the series, but Anton liked it.

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Nashville, TN — Matt Kobyluck was well on his way to a top-five finish in the NASCAR Busch East Series debut at Nashville’s Music City Motorplex Sunday night, but a tire issue relegated the driver to a 12^th place finish. Kobyluck, however, was able to move up the points ladder with his finish.

“It was a good points night for us and we moved up to second,” he explained. “We’re in one piece and we got a 12^th place finish out of it. Certainly I would have liked to have been in the top-10, but on that last restart the 35 car almost came down on us and we had to back out of it. Whether it was 9^th or 10^th or 11^th or 12^th it really doesn’t make much of a difference, but at the end of the season it might. We’re getting closer every week though and the guys are working really hard to close up the gap every week.”

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Nashville, TN — Max Dumarey’s learning curve is getting shorter.

The 18-year-old driver from Belgium posted a fourteenth place finish in the NASCAR Busch East Series 150 at Music City Motorplex in Nashville Sunday night. The finish was Dumarey’s first in the top-15 and continues a trend of improving performances since he jumped behind the wheel of Fadden Racing’s #16 BODYCOACH.NET Chevrolet.

“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.

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Nashville, TN — Mike Olsen’s day ended after 23 laps in the NASCAR Busch East Series’ race at Nashville’s Music City Motorplex Sunday night when the rear-end in his No. 61 Little Trees Chevrolet broke and sent him into the turn one wall.

“Something broke in the rearend. It’s basically a CSI crime scene at the moment. We have a lot of evidence, but we have to take it back to the lab and analyze it. I don’t know exactly what happened,” he said.Olsen’s crew was unable to fix all the damage incurred by the incident, and parked the car for the day.

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Mooresville, NC — Joey Logano doesn’t know how to play the guitar – the legendary trophy that goes to any winner at the Fairgrounds track in Nashville, TN.  But if things would have gone his way on Sunday night, he surely would have taken lessons.  Instead, Logano will have to watch a fellow racer play guitar, while Logano thinks of what might have been. 

Logano finished an impressive second in the NASCAR Busch East Series 150-lap event at Nashville’s historic Music City Motorplex at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds on Sunday evening, despite running out of gas as the field went through a green-white-checkered finish with his Joe Gibbs Driven #20 Chevrolet.

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Nashville, TN — Like most of his fellow drivers in the NASCAR Busch East Series, Rogelio Lopez hopes to one day run in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. But he knows to get there, he has to have success on the various levels up the ladder.

Already the 2006 NASCAR Mexico champion, Lopez took a monumental step forward in his progress with a victory Sunday night in the Busch East Series’ Music City 150 at the historic Music City Motorplex. He became just the second Mexican-born driver to win in Busch East and the first to do so on an oval.

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