ANTELOPE, California -- Bill McAnally Racing’s driver Brian Ickler, pilot of the #16 NAPA AUTO PARTS/NAPA Filters.com Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, captured the Bud Pole award with time of 16.452 at Colorado National Speedway. This was Ickler’s second career West Series Bud Pole Award. Ickler set a new track record as he prepared for the NAPA “150” presented by NAPA Belts & Hose.
Starting on the inside of row one, Ickler was quick to leave the pack of twenty-one cars. He led the NAPA ‘150” for 81 laps of the eventual 155-lap race. After working hard on the bumper of the #16 NAPA Chevrolet, the eventual race winner Mike Duncan finally got past Ickler after a restart on lap 82. With the 100-lap mark quickly approaching, Ickler’s #16 NAPA Chevrolet began experiencing some handing problems. After a quick duck into the garage area, crew chief Craig Raudman and the NAPA team determined that the #16 car had lost power steering fluid but everything else looked good. Ickler returned to the race one lap down and received the ‘Lucky Dog” allowing him to return to the lead lap of the race. Ickler fought the power steering problems and would finish the race in 15th place. He remains eleventh place in the chase for the championship.
The #16 NAPA team had great support from the over 600 store owners, employees and customers that filled the turn two hospitality area of Colorado National Speedway. Drivers Brian Ickler, Eric Richardson, and Moses Smith spent some time prior to the race in the NAPA Hospitality area meeting with the fans and signing autographs. Later the fans cheered loudly as the drivers were introduced. The event began with teams taking warm up laps with a NAPA parts delivery truck taking the lead. BMR would like to thank out race partners NAPA AUTO PARTS, NAPA Belts & Hose an NAPA Filters.com for their continuing support in the NASCAR Grand National Division West Series.
The next NASCAR Grand National Division race will take place with the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California and will be televised live on HDNet and be presented as an enhanced replay on SPEED Channel. Please check your local listings for airtimes.
For more information on Bill McAnally Racing and our race partners, please visit our website at www.billmcanallyracing.com.
