Big House Carnage!

Lucas Oil Utah Nationals and the “Big House” Crandon
Luke just returned from two race weekends back-to-back filled with carnage, fun, and great racing.

UTAH
Luke started the weekend off strong a 4th, 4th, and a 2nd in practice.
He was sitting in 4th in points coming into the weekend, so moving up in points was definitely on the radar. The car struggled a little during qualifying, but Luke still ended up 5th. He’d be able to make up positions in the race and still stay in the points battle.

The race started and Luke made his way up to 3rd. He fought a good race and maintained his 3rd place position until the last lap. After some contact from another driver putting Luke behind, he would finish 4th.Luke qualified 6th for Saturday’s race.

Carnage started right after the drop of the green flag during the 2nd day of racing. The car in front of Luke flipped right off the start and with nowhere to go, he crashed into that car. The steering got a little tweaked after the crash. Luke maintained 5th place until mid-race. After the mandatory yellow a car from 11th place jumped the start causing him to hit Luke and bounce into the wall and flip. Unfortunately, Luke got a black flag for that but made his way to finish 6th.

CRANDON

We were all excited coming into “The Big House” for a weekend of good racing on a fast track. Luke had hopes of coming out of the weekend with a win and a championship, but a few mishaps along the way would prevent that from happening.

The famous Crandon parade on Friday was full of energy and the best fans. Luke was able to meet with people and hand out hero cards and sponsor products all day. Everyone loved it! After spending time with the crowd, all of the race vehicles filed out back to the track to get ready for the race.
Luke felt comfortable coming into the race, knowing he just needed a good start. He was able to do just that! Luke pulled the hole shot and lead the race until lap 5. It looked as though he had the win in the bag. Mid-race he dropped back to 3rd place. Coming up on the white flag, Luke got taken out and would end up finishing 10th.

Sunday was the big day, the Crandon World Cup Race day! Luke got a decent start but got pushed around to 11th. With this being one of the biggest races of the year, Luke knew he needed to take a deep breath and focus – he needed to make it back up front. Focused and ready, he made passes every lap and was gaining positions left and right. Luke charged his way to 4th place and worked hard to move up to 3rd. Unfortunately, he ran out of time to get the podium, but still would finish 4th – which was a solid finish in this tough of a race!