ineX Racing Runs First and Second At Daytona
Round five of the Oval Pro Series would take place at Daytona International Speedway. Phil Diaz and Nolan Scott have proved to be competitive throughout the season, despite some upsetting finishes. Although they have both finished in the top five, with a best season finish of third, there is still room for improvement lurking around every corner.
Daytona has never been a consistent place to score points, and it has never been the most forgiving track for ineX Racing drivers. "We had a great set thanks to the data supplied to us from Tanner Stoops of Wheelmen Inc. Thanks to them we were more confident than we've ever been entering the infield of Daytona," Nolan said.
This race particularly would take place on Saturday. Phil and Nolan would find themselves in the same split. Nolan would take the pole by the narrowest of margins, whereas Phil would have to take to the rear of the grid after not having posted a qualifying time.
The race started cleanly, and Nolan would lead the field into turn one. However, Mason Baker would make an inside move going down the back straight and take the lead. "I couldn't believe he made that move. We had pulled the outside line enough that we could have run a Q line and pulled away. Instead we now had to run side by side for the rest of the run."
Afterwords Jim Christopherson let Nolan back to the bottom of the track and they both ran behind Mason. Mason showed some lagging issues, and therefore both Jim and Nolan moved to the top of the track. In the meantime Ryan Carwile pushed Mason on the bottom despite the connection issues. After ten laps disaster finally struck, as Mason would be shot up the track into Nolan and Jim. Lucky the lag would still be in effect, and it did not ruin anyone's race.
The green flag dropped and the race was back underway. This time they would be in for a long run. By this time Phil had worked his way up into the top eight. The race went green all the way up until pit stops which took place on lap 45 to 49. A few drivers pitted early, something which proved to be a mistake. Phil and Nolan would stretch their fuel to the limit and pitted together. After their pit stops they lined up nose to tail and sailed into the lead. Third and fourth place drivers Brad Bubel and Justin Lowery would come out close enough to catch the draft, and it became a four way battle for the lead.
Brad and Justin were very content running a Q line behind Nolan and Phil being that the group of cars behind was much larger. Despite this, the four lined up were easily outrunning the larger group of cars by half a tenth a lap. All looked good, and each of the top four looked content on running this line until the end of the race. Unfortunately for them, a caution would come out with fifteenth laps to go.
This restart would go according to plan, as Nolan would get a great jump on the field which allowed Phil to pull to the bottom of the track. The group of four would line up yet again and with their pace the outside line had no chance of getting around. However, another caution would come out nearing the end of the race.
The final restart took place with only five laps to go. Nolan got another good start, but this time Phil would fall back into the 6th position. Several cars bunched up on the outside and were almost able to get past Nolan for the lead, but were unable to get the overlap they need. Phil would work his way down to the bottom of the track and once bunched up, the bottom line proved to be too fast for those on the outside.
On the final lap, Phil found himself running third on the bottom line, with first on the outside line right beside him. Coming out of the finial corner Phil forced a spectacular move down the front stretch by pushing his way between the inside and outside lanes. Over the start finish line, Phil took the second place position by just six thousands of a second over third place finisher Ian D Smythe. This claimed ineX Racing's first one-two Pro Series race ever, as well as it's first Pro Series win for the 2010 season.
It was a great week for the two, as they received their first pole, win, and runner-up of the year. This earned the two a substantial amount of points, and both are slowly creeping their way into the top 25 in points despite missing several rounds.
Round six of the iRacing Oval Pro Series will take the drivers to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With a little luck and a good setup, we hope to see Phil and Nolan in the same position come two weeks time.