DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- Don’t blame Brian Ickler (No. 16 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet) for being anxious to return to Infineon Raceway. As a rookie last year, he arrived for the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series race on the twisting Sonoma, Calif., road course and hardly knew what to expect. He came away with a career-best second-place finish.
The Grand National West Series returns to Infineon this week for the Blue Lizard Suncream 200 presented by Supercuts on Saturday, June 23. The race will be televised to a national audience live in high definition on HDNet. In addition, SPEED is to provide an enhanced replay.
“I’m looking forward to this year,” Ickler said. “I’m in a lot better shape than I was last year. Those road courses take a lot out of you. I’ve been preparing for that. I can’t wait to get out there.”
Looking back, Ickler declines to point to a specific reason for doing so well in his first time on such a challenging track. “We just showed up and had no idea what to expect,” recalled the 21-year-old driver from San Diego. “We tested there and that was a huge advantage, for us to at least see the track before the rest of the competition showed up.” Ickler admits to being surprised by his success on the winding 1.99-mile track last year. “Not having been to a road course before, it was a huge surprise,” he said of qualifying third and finishing second. “I found that I really enjoy road racing a lot more than I thought I would.”
His success may stem from his years of off-road racing. “I think that’s why we did well,” Ickler said. “A lot of off-road racing is farm roads and every corner is different. You can’t really set up a car for two corners, like you do in circle track. And off-road racing has a lot of shifting. There are a lot of similarities there. So, I think that helped me a lot.”
After encountering various setbacks in the first six races this season, Ickler and his Bill McAnally Racing team led by crew chief Craig Raudman are looking to turn their luck around. “Craig and I have been at the shop four days a week working on these cars, trying to get them as good and well prepared as we can,” Ickler said. “It’s frustrating. We just go on to the next race with a good attitude. It will turn around one of these times.”
Ickler is optimistic that the team’s turnaround could come at Infineon. “We went up there and tested,” he said. “We had a lot of instruction from Chris Cook, the road course specialist. I think with the effort we’ve been putting in the whole year, I don’t see why our luck won’t change. We definitely have good equipment and good cars and good people working on them.”
Ickler knows that a lot goes into getting a good finish, especially on a road course. “The biggest key is just being smooth,” said the second-year West Series driver. “If you look at last year’s race, there were some engines blown up from over-revving them downshifting and transmissions broke from all the wheel-hop when you get going in the corner too hard.”
The grueling demand of a road race requires extra preparation on the car, Ickler pointed out. “It takes a lot more time, a lot more man-hours to get a road course car ready,” he said. “All the safety wiring, the wear and tear on all the bolts, and everything coming loose. I think that car prep is huge.”
A good attitude by the driver is also important to doing well on a road course, he added. “I think it’s being calm, being patient. It’s more racing the race track other than racing your competitors,” Ickler said.
