Billy Tanner headed into his fourth career ARCA RE/MAX Series event looking to make an impression, but the Stott Classic Racing (SCR) left the event with a headache after a frustrating day yielded a 24th place finish.
Tanner in his third race of the season with SCR got off to a bumpy start after losing his primary car on the first lap of practice forcing the team to pullout the backup machine and prepare it for competition for the remainder of the day.
The SCR team flexed their muscle quickly preparing the backup and sending Tanner back into the final minutes of practice netting the 25th fastest time on the charts.
“Practice was rough,” said Tanner. “I’m not really sure what happened, With our primary, I went into the corner, I might have overdrove the car and the rest was history. I’m sorry to my guys, but I thank them for preparing the backup car in quick fashion.”
The team bowed out of qualifications to focus on race setup. With a guaranteed starting position, the team knew they would start the Prairie Meadows 250.
“We didn’t make a qualifying attempt as we wanted to make sure our backup car was suitable for racing conditions. We’re lucky that there were enough open spots that we were able to put our No. 07 CheapCaribbean.com Chevrolet into the race,” added Tanner.
At the start of the race, Tanner played it easy but fought with the handling of his racecar. Despite the challenges he faced, he continued to move his way through the field.
Leading up to the first pit stop, Tanner was hovering in the top-25.
During the first round of pit stops, car owner and crew chief Corrie Stott called for four Hoosier tires, Sunoco Racing fuel and a chassis adjustment hoping to improve the handling of the No. 07 CheapCaribbean.com machine.
The changes worked and Tanner was holding steady before contact with the No. 22 of Ken Butler III sent the car into the wall. The damage caused extreme damage to the right-front of Tanner’s No. 07 Chevrolet.
The Pennsylvania native brought his automobile to the attention of his crew where they attempted to repair the front end. With sheet metal missing and a huge gash along the right front of the racecar, Tanner returned to competition and hung in to cross the checkered flag completing 233 of 250 laps.
“Today was a frustrating day,” said Tanner. “Our backup was set up to run Iowa, so we had a little bit of a challenge there. We persevered to the best of our ability. I want to thank my team for their hard work this weekend. Preparing a primary and backup car is no easy task in one day. We’ll head to Pocono Raceway next weekend and look to get back on track.”
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