Bristol. Matt Kenseth took the win. Keselowski had an incident. Kahne couldn’t quite make the move. Jimmie Johnson just had a flat out bad day. Fortunately for him he could afford it.
Two races remain, Atlanta and Richmond, before “The Chase” is set. Minor miracles need to happen for some while Johnson, Bowyer and Kenseth can relax even though Bowyer has yet to log a win for the season. Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch are practically in and would need major setbacks over the next two to jinx it. Dale, Jr., Kahne and Biffle just have to finish well to hold their spots, for the most part.
Bubbles and longshots include Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. along with the likes of Jeff Burton, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Jamie McMurray…
We’re not going for selective alliteration… We promise.
Actually, none of the above is really the point at all. It just so happens it is top tier NASCAR racing the same day (night, as it were) as the entry level series we actually attended. While the Sprint Cup drivers ran for the shrinking availability of Chase points at Bristol, the K&N Pro Series East was packing it in at Virginia International Raceway. It was this race, the first road course for the “East” series, that had us out in the countryside of southside Virginia rather than fighting the traffic around the Tennessee – Virginia border.
Some classic and retired Winston cars were there to run a Dixie Cup show race. The young drivers of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series (East) had run the practice and qualifying and by the afternoon were as ready as they were going to be to run the 55 lap feature Biscuitville 125 with left turns, straights hills and, yes, right hand turns. To hear some of the drivers before VIR speak of it you would think they had never made a right turn, anywhere, not even a legal one under a red light at an intersection…
FULL PHOTO GALLERY – Biscuitville 125
Yet they took to racing behind the Biscuitville / Danville Toyota Pace Car with much less incident than expected. They actually handled the course quite well… For the most part. The lead was the noticeable change-up point as the field stretched out. Dylan Kwasniewski (Royal Purple/Rockstar Energy Drink Chevrolet #98) started on pole and led the most but did trade off the front with Daniel Suarez (Visit Acapulco Toyota #6) and Ryan Gifford (Universal Technical Institute/NTI Toyota #2)
There were only three yellow flag, full course cautions. At the end, it was Kwasniewski at the checkers taking his fourth win of the season. Notable was the very young (age 15) Gray Gaulding who put his Krispy Kreme Toyota into 5th place. 17 year old Michael McGuire (Woods Transportation Chevy) was also charging hard and moving up, perhaps a little too hard as he went off on the uphill turn and went off-roading half way up the hill. He still finished in the 16th spot. Not bad as he hasn’t logged as much seat time as most of the others…
The two women in the field finished 12th and 17th. Kenzie Ruston in the AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet was the 12th and Mackena Bell in the Toyota Racing Development Toyota was at 17th.
Track local Peyton Sellers had some interesting help with the #01 Toyota Tech College/Yazaki Toyota for the VIR road race. Japanese Toyota Technical College students were in the pits and on the crew as Sellers brought it home in 7th place.
If there was any doubt this was a NASCAR race the finish cleared those doubts with a NASCAR classic green-white-checkered finish. Suarez and his #6 blew something out on the front stretch leaving a nice oil stripe from the start-finish line to turn one. By the time litter was laid and blown off, the field was lined up for the green. Kwasniewski charged out and never looked back and two laps later took the win, followed by Bryan Ortiz and Brett Moffitt (both in Toyota marked cars).
Ben Kennedy finished 4th, Cale Conley was 6th while Scott Heckert, Eddie MacDonald and Alex Kennedy rounded the top 10.
This was not only a first for most of the drivers it was also a “first” event of this type for Virginia International Raceway. VIR is known for sports cars, motorcycles, even open wheel racing, but NASCAR and stock cars racing in a sanctioned points race is new for them. If the race and the crowd was any indication there should be more to come.
(Sprint Cup and Nationwide drivers test here, but do not race…)
The remainder of the season for VIR is closer to the racing events they are know for. September has the CCS Festival of Speed (motorcycle) and the Heacock Classic (classic, historic and show cars). The American Le Mans series opens October with the SCCA closing out the month. In chilly December, the Chump Cars return for some fast, cheap but really fun racing.
As for now, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East / Biscuitville 125 is in the books. It was a great day of racing and one to look for in 2014.
Go watch these drivers. Get an autograph. You’ll be glad you did when you see them in Sprint Cup in 5-10 years…
Full results (PDF / K&N Pro Series website)
CLICK HERE! FULL GALLERY – Biscuitville 125 / Virginia International Raceway