•Eggleston Takes Third, McReynolds Fifth In K&N Pro Series West
DACONO, Colo. (Aug. 22, 2015) – Bill McAnally Racing drivers Chris Eggleston and Brandon McReynolds both captured top-five finishes in NASCAR K&N Pro Series West action Saturday in the NAPA AUTO PARTS / Toyota 150 at Colorado National Speedway.
Eggleston finished third in the No. 99 NAPA Filters/H2O Fire Protection Toyota, while McReynolds crossed the line fifth in the No. 16 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota.
It marked a return for Eggleston to his home track, where he scored a win in his first race with BMR a year ago.
He set the top mark in both practice sessions earlier in the day on Saturday.
“The NAPA Filters Toyota rolled off the trailer really good,” said Eggleston, who is in his first full season in the series. “We had a really well balanced race car.”
He and his crew chief, Roger Bracken, set up the suspension of the No. 99 Toyota according to how they anticipated the track would change.
“We thought the track would go looser at the end, so we purposely tightened the car up,” Eggleston said. “We knew we would lose speed on the short runs, but hoped it would pay dividends on the longer runs.”
After qualifying third quickest, Eggleston made an early move to take second on the sixth lap of the race. He paced the leader throughout the race, and nosed his Toyota out front for a lap just after the first of three restarts. The top two drivers waged a tight back-and-forth battle as they worked their way through lapped traffic on the tight 3/8-mile. Although he continued to chase after the leader into the closing stages of the race, Eggleston lost a spot late to finish third for the second straight week.
“I was running as hard as I could without abusing the tires, trying to keep up with the leader,” Eggleston said. “We could get to his bumper and that was about it. We kind of got caught up with a couple of lapped cars. I tried to get clear of them, and spun the tires a couple of times. It’s like we glazed the right rear and could never get it back.”
McReynolds, meanwhile, qualified sixth. He began moving forward early and was in fifth by Lap 27. He continued the charge and took fourth by Lap 55. He slipped a spot on Lap 90, but stayed solid in the top five to finish fifth, matching his finish of a year ago at CNS.
“It was a good night with our NAPA Toyota,” McReynolds said. “We needed to be a little better on short runs. The guys worked hard to not have any issues. A fifth-place finish is not what we wanted, but it’s a good foundation to build off of as far as our short-track program.”
Eggleston remains atop the championship standings, with two wins, seven top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 10 starts.
McReynolds remains eighth in points. The 24-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina driver has two wins, three top-five and six top-10 finishes.
The NAPA AUTO PARTS / Toyota 150, won by Ryan Partridge, will be televised on NBCSN on Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. ET. It was the 10th event on a 13-race schedule and marked the 13th visit by the series to CNS.
The next event on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule will be the Idaho 208 at Meridian (Idaho) Speedway on Sept. 5.