Series veteran Scott Gaylord of Lakewood, Colo., finished a close third in the #00 Oliver Gravity Separators/Denver Seminary Chevrolet.
"Great pit stop guys," Gaylord radios in after going from 14th to 9th after a pit stop.
We were ready for a warm and sunny California weekend at Irwindale Speedway, when we arrive the temperatures were cooler than we had left behind in Colorado and stayed that way the entire race day on Saturday. It offered pleasant conditions to work on and to drive race cars.
We had two different practice sessions, made some minor changes but all in all the weekend could not have gone any smoother. We didn't have one of the fastest cars during those sessions but when we were out of time Scott got out of the car and let us all know that we had a "good" race car!
However, it was not a given during the race and the third place finish was hard fought and well deserved. The crew did a great job in the pits during a tire stop and Scott did a great job on the track working his way through traffic and as always avoiding many on track incidents. We were extremely happy with our third place finish which helped greatly in digging our way out of the hole we found ourselves in after our we did not finish earlier this year at Phoenix due to an engine failure.
Gaylord moves back into the top 10 in points after falling as low as 20th and is looking forward to returning to road course racing at Infineon Raceway in three weeks.
Consecutive starts for Gaylord … Starting the race at Irwindale will move series veteran Scott Gaylord (No. 00 Oliver Gravity Separators/Denver Seminary Chevrolet) into a tie with Kevin Richards and Sonny Easley for third on the list of consecutive series starts in the modern era (1971 to present) with 79. Ray Elder leads the category with 121 straight starts in the era, followed by Bill Schmitt with 118. While Gaylord has 161 career starts overall, dating back to 1988 – his current string of 78 straight starts began Oct. 17, 1999.
Top 10 finishes … Scott Gaylord has scored the most top-10s in series competition at Irwindale – finishing in the top 10 in ten of the 12 races he entered there
The next event on the NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series schedule is the Blue Lizard Suncream 200 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., on June 24. The event is to be televised live in high definition on HDNet. In addition, an enhanced replay will air on SPEED
