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Eddie Sharp Racing’s Justin Lofton managed to narrowly skirt through Friday’s “Big One” at Talladega Superspeedway. Lofton consistently ran in the top-10 until damage received from contact with the nearly-airborne Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. limited the No. 20 Lofton Cattle Toyota to a 16th-place finish in the ARCA RE/MAX 250.
“Just another frustrating weekend,” said Lofton. “My guys put together a great speedway car for this weekend. Unfortunately when Ricky blew his right rear tire, we got hit by him as he spun. We had to come in several times to work on the fenders and lost a lot of track position. The guys worked fast and kept us on the lead lap to get the best finish we could after that.”
The No. 20 Lofton Cattle Toyota the fastest of the ESR entries in Thursday’s practice, sitting fourth with a fast lap of 50.636 seconds. Lofton qualified the Camry in the tenth position for his superspeedway debut.
On lap 11 the “Big One” occurred as the No. 25 of Brian Scott blew a right rear tire. Lofton reacted quickly and decisively, driving the No. 20 low on the track and narrowly missing contact with the wrecking cars. Lofton remained in the top-10 until the No. 99 of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. violently blew a right rear tire, spinning immediately in front of the No. 20 Toyota, damaging Lofton’s right front fender.
The Lofton Cattle team came to pit road on multiple occasions to work on the fender damage and wheel alignment. The handling of No. 20 Lofton Cattle Toyota went away completely and Lofton had his hands full for the remainder of the 94-lap event. One of 19 cars that finished on the lead lap as the dark was setting in quickly in Talladega, Alabama, Lofton took the checkered flag in the 16th position.
