Irwindale, CA --Andy Santerre continued a streak of consistency into post season action when he posted his 13th consecutive top-10 of the year with a seventh place finish in the highly prestigious Toyota All-Star Showdown Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway. The four-time champion, who at one point was strong enough to challenge for the lead, survived the night’s 13 caution flags with only minor front-end damage on his No. 44 Castle Packs Power Chevrolet. The damage was enough, however, to take him out of contention for the win.
“We definitely wanted to win this thing tonight, and at some points, we thought we might be able to,” Santerre said. “After I got tore up on the restart, I knew my chances of winning were pretty much out the window.”
Santerre started the highly anticipated event in the 12th position after posting a sixth place finish in the second of two qualifying races Friday night.
Santerre played the patience game in the first quarter of the 100-lap segment, but turned up the heat on a lap 36 restart. Santerre went under the 96 of Mike Johnson and battled side-by-side for several laps before clearing him and taking over the fourth spot.
A caution put David Gilliland and Ryan Moore together up front with Gilliland emerging the leader out of turn two. Santerre grabbed third from Caisse and the top-three pulled away by a comfortable ten carlength advantage. They remained there until lap 89 when caution again slowed the pace. Only four more green flag laps were put in the books before the mandatory ten-minute break and the conclusion of the team competition, which the Busch North dominated with seven of the top-10 positions.
After the break, Gilliland went right back into action as the leader, but Santerre was doing everything he could to march to the front using the bottom groove. Moore held off Santerre’s challenges, but the Cherryfield, ME was persistent and again turned the heat up at lap 110 and passed Gilliland for second.
A caution put Santerre and Moore on the front row for the return to green flag action. Despite Santerre’s best efforts, Moore was able to pull away and retain the lead. A four-car pile-up brought out a red flag condition for 15 minutes, and put Moore and Santerre together on the front row again.
The two were pretty even as they approached the line, and NASCAR scored Moore in the lead. Gilliland relegated Santerre to third a few laps later. Several caution periods made progress almost impossible, but a restart following a lap 134 caution proved detrimental for Santerre.
“The 74 and the 88 were messing with each other on the restart. The 74 throttled it up a little bit and the 88 jumped early and then he lifted. When he lifted the first time, I caught it and didn’t go. I looked and the flagman waved the flag, and the 88 hit it again but then he left off again. When he did we all just piled up. It was a chain reaction. The 88 did go early, but the 74 slowed way up. They were both monkeying with each for the lead. I was a victim of it, and there were a few other cars that were a victim of it,” Santerre said.
Santerre went on to take the checkers in seventh and earned $13,000 for his efforts.
