Jason White endured a long eventful afternoon at the Iowa Speedway, eventually bringing home the GunBroker.com/Pheasants Forever Dodge in twenty-third place in the Lucas Oil 200.
White's day began starting from the seventeenth position following Saturday evenings qualifying session and Jason held his ground early in the race. Jason and teammate Donny Lia had spirited side-by-side battles early on several occasions before Jason took the spot on lap twenty. On lap twenty-seven Jason passed Ryan Sieg to move into the top-fifteen.
The GunBroker.com/Pheasants Forever Dodge ran very consistent lap times through the initial green-flag run and was in fourteenth when the first caution flew on lap thirty-eight. Crew Chief Doug Howe called for four tires, a small chassis adjustment and fuel. Several trucks took two tires and Jason restarted sixteenth.
By lap fifty, Jason had moved up to thirteenth place when he radioed the crew there was a miss in the motor and over the next few laps, it was determined that the No 23 had developed an electrical problem. Howe had Jason turn off all fans, blowers and anything to save power.
Jason's truck was handling beautifully and despite the miss in the motor he was hanging around just outside the top-ten. Howe elected to change the battery under caution on lap 103 and the SS Green Light Racing crew did a fantastic job and kept Jason on the lead lap.
A huge wreck on the frontstretch on 115 took out several contending truck including teammate Lia who was running up in the top-five. With the new battery, Jason's truck was running better and following the accident he moved into the top-ten and looked poised to make a run for the front of the field.
Back under green, Jason reported a small vibration and that the truck was getting tighter as the run progressed. Bad luck would strike again when the right front tire blew out on the No 23 on lap 142 sending Jason hard into the outside wall.
The SS Green Light crew worked hard in the garage area changing the right front brake rotor and several suspension parts to get Jason back out thirty-three laps down in twenty-third place.
Jason was just making laps hoping to get to the finish when the right front blew again with only three laps to go causing the races final caution and capping off the end to a disappointing day in the heat at Iowa Speedway.
Austin Dillon dominated most of the race from the pole for his first every NCWTS victory.
"We were good enough to finish in the top-five," a dejected White said after the race. "We should have probably put four tires on after we swapped out the battery, there was a lot of debris after that wreck and I think the tire was going soft after the restart. I knew right after we went back to green we had a possible problem."
The disheartening finish dropped White four positions in the NCWTS point standings to eleventh behind leader Todd Bodine.
"That was a big hit in the points," he continued. "We are going to really need to finish at Gateway to get us back in the top-ten."
The next NCWTS race for Jason White and the GunBroker.com team is Friday, July 16th at the Gateway International Speedway in St Louis.
