St. Louis: Jason White race report

Jason White Eleventh in Eleventh Race

Madison, IL -- July 17, 2010. Following a sixteen-hour delay for a power outage that caused the CampingWorld.com 200 to be postponed from Friday to the heat of Saturday afternoon, Jason White brought home his third eleventh-place finish of the 2010 NCWTS season at Gateway International Raceway.

White qualified the GunBroker.com No. 23 on Friday afternoon in the twenty-third spot with a lap of 34.44 seconds on the mile and a quarter egg-shaped speedway just east of St Louis, MO.

"We are just missing on our qualifying set-up the last couple races," White said. "We have been much better in race trim, but with these restrictor plates it's very difficult to pass. Track position is so important, so we need to keep working on qualifying better."

After the start of the race, Jason was able to move up several positions during the first green flag run. Ultimately, the CampingWorld.com 200 would turn into a race of pit stops; with tire strategy causing huge swings in track position and jumbling the field on several occasions.

"Our first two pit stops were blazing fast," White said. "I think we picked up about seven spots on the first stop. They guys were right on that one."

The SS Green Light Racing team's second stop was just before the halfway point. Crew Chief Doug Howe called for two tires and the over-the wall crew had another fast stop getting White out in third place. "That was a great call and a great stop," Jason said.

White was able to hold position within the top-ten with only two fresh two tires, running hard in the afternoon heat.

The races final caution came out on lap 125 for debris on the track, setting the stage for a final round of pit-stops followed by a thirty five-lap sprint to the finish.

The GunBroker.com crew changed four tires and sent White back out to the track. Several teams used the opportunity to change just two tires and the strategy paid off for them as the No. 23 dropped several positions restarting thirteenth. White was able to work his way up to eleventh in the final standings at drop of the checkered flag.

"We took two tires early and it paid off, in hindsight we probably should have tried it again," he said. "We didn't have quite as good a stop as we had earlier and the truck was just a little too free at the end for me to get any more spots back. This was a whole race of pit stops and track position today."

Kevin Harvick dominated most of the race from the pole for his third NCWTS victory of 2010.

White moved back into the top-ten NCWTS point standings behind leader Todd Bodine. "It was a much better points day," White said. "Overall, I'm OK with how it turned out, but it's really not the result that we are capable of."

The next NCWTS race for Jason White is the AAA Insurance 200 on Friday, July 23rd at the O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, IN. White will be in the green and black colors of ASI Limited for the race.

"We just have to keep working at it," he continued. "I'm real excited about the next couple races, they are all at tracks that I've run well at in the past and we should be able to try to work our way back toward the top-five in the points."

-source: ssglr