Jason White expected good things in Saturday's E-Z-GO 200 NASCAR Camping World Series race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. While the final results were not quite as impressive as the previous race at Daytona, White brought the GunBroker.com No. 23 home in eleventh place and the solid finish boosted White into third in the NCWTS Points.
White qualified the GunBroker.com Dodge in the fourteenth spot with a lap of 31.63 seconds during Saturday mornings qualifying run and took the green flag from the outside of the seventh row directly ahead teammate Donny Lia who qualified the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Atlanta No. 07 in sixteenth.
Jason fell back a couple spots in the races early laps, as the GunBroker.com truck was a little too loose getting into the corners.
Crew Chief Doug Howe and the SS Green Light crew made air pressure adjustments to balance the truck for White in the second run. The team did a fantastic job changing four tires and adding fuel and moved White into the top-ten when the race restarted on lap 28.
As the race wore on, Jason was able to keep the GunBoker.com truck in the top-twelve in the running order. He radioed the crew that the balance was much better, but he was having a hard time in traffic, "I lose the nose of the truck when I get behind these trucks. I'm faster than them, but when I catch them I just can't get around them."
White was nearly collected in a wreck on lap 75 when Justin Lofton and Shane Sieg got together coming off of turn-two directly in front of him.
Jason narrowly scooted below the two as they bounced off the outside wall.
The No. 23 was in twelfth place when teammate Lia lost a right front tire on lap 113 and came to pit-road for his last set of Goodyear tires.
Again the crew got Jason out quickly and picked up a spot in the running order up to eleventh where he would finish the 200-mile race.
"Track position was key today," White said after the race. "I just could not get into the corners as hard as I wanted when I was behind other trucks. I would have liked to have caught the three (Austin Dillon) for a top-ten at the end, but aero is so important at this track."
"The handle was a little off, our motor was a little off, but I'm pleased with our effort today," he added. "We brought the truck home in one piece and moved up the third in the points and that shows all the hard work these guys have done over the last few months is paying off."
Both SS Green Light trucks are now in the top-ten in the standings. "It'
s a long season, but I'm very pleased with they way the efforts of our teams to start the season," said General Manager Bobby Dotter. "I think this is the first time SS Green Light Racing has had two trucks in the top-ten in our history. I know the guys are going to work hard and stay focused on keeping us up in the points."
The next race for Jason White and the GunBroker.com team is March 27th at Martinsville Speedway.
