SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- Making the most of her 2000 mile roundtrip to Roseville, CA’s All American Speedway each weekend, Billings, MT’s Mindy McCord led a fleet of Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle drivers to win the NASCAR Modified trophy dash on Saturday night.
"This was Mindy’s best performance of 2011 in many different ways."— Ron Sutton
McCord was one of five Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle drivers in action during the Labor Day weekend Modified activities on the one-third mile asphalt oval. McCord drives a family-owned, Nascimento Motorsports-prepared #26 Modified in the division.
The evening opened up with qualifying with championship contender Steve Cote leading the RSWC charge with a second place lap at 14.544 ahead of teammate Joey Licata and McCord.
Cote, of Montreal, Licata, and McCord all qualified for the trophy dash on the strength of their qualifying runs. The four-lap dash was inverted placing McCord on pole alongside Licata.
McCord, a former USAC Ford Focus racer, and ARCA standout Licata put on an entertaining race for the lead. The back-and-forth battle saw Licata surge forward on the outside out of turn two but McCord continued to pull away through turns three and four.
Licata stayed on the outside all four laps making one final bid on the white flag lap, but McCord was too strong as she picked up her first career NASCAR trophy dash with a photo finish.
McCord showed off her talents in the 35 lap feature after starting fourth. McCord slipped back to sixth in the early laps but won a nice battle for the fourth position on lap seven.
McCord held onto fourth the rest of the way to lead the Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle drivers in the field. The talented young driver has qualified in the top-six on six occasions this year but Saturday’s fourth place marks her best result in a season full of bad luck.
“This was Mindy’s best performance of 2011 in many different ways,” Driver Coach Ron Sutton said. “It was great to see her get that trophy dash win but also see her turn the corner in getting her first top-five in the main event. She is inching closer to her first feature win!”
Mindy McCord Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle thanks partners: QMParts.com, Interstate Performance Exhaust, Car Factory, Nascimento Motorsports, K&N Filters, Scribner Plastics, Allstar Performance, Sunoco Race Fuels and Star Racing Supply.
About Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle:
Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle is an established talent scout and development program, providing long term, comprehensive racing and career development for up and coming drivers focused on professional Stock Car careers. RSWC drivers are raced, coached, groomed, trained and molded, within a professional racing environment, into what top teams look for when hiring drivers. Drivers involved in the program race in a variety of cars, including USAC Young Guns Focus Midgets, USAC Ford Focus Midgets, NASCAR Grand American Modifieds, NASCAR Late Model stock cars and NASCAR K&N Pro Series stock cars.
