SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Dan McKeage of Gorham, Maine, finished sixth in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Pro Series 100 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Saturday, June 29. McKeage pitted on multiple occasions to make chassis adjustments on the Naughty 40 Racing No. 40 Top Gun Construction Chevrolet and work his way into the Top-10 in the late going. On a final green-white-checkered restart, McKeage got a good restart on the outside lane and was able to fight his way up to sixth at the finish. The team discovered a mechanical issue on the rear end of the car during the post-race, and hope that repairs there will have them back up to speed for the Miller Lite 50 at Beech Ridge on Tuesday, July 2.
WHO: Dan McKeage, Gorham, Maine
TEAM: Naughty 40 Racing No. 40 Top Gun Construction Chevrolet
WHAT: NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Pro Series 40
WHERE: Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
STARTED: 11th
FINISHED: 6th
NEXT RACE: July 2, Miller Lite 50, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
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DAN, WERE YOU SURPRISED TO FINISH SIXTH AFTER ALL YOU WENT THROUGH ON THE NIGHT?
Yeah, to say the least, I guess. It started out pretty decent, but it just didn’t get any better. We tried to pit early and make it better, but we couldn’t make it better all night, really. We just tried to salvage a decent finish.
We kept battling to the end there and we ended up having a decent restart. The inside line didn’t go, we we ended up sneaking in three or four spots there at the end. It wasn’t bad for as ill as the car was. We’ve been struggling for the last couple of weeks, and every week we think we’ve found the issue but we just haven’t. This was better than the last couple of weeks, so I guess it’s something to build on.
DO YOU THINK YOU FINALLY FOUND THE ISSUE AFTER THE RACE?
Yeah. During the week we found something up on the right rear shock, and we thought, ‘This is why we haven’t been able to get the car to turn.’ This week (after the race) we got it jacked up to torque the wheels. There’s a locker unit in the rear end – they have to be maintenanced a lot – and we checked it and it was definitely broken in the rear.
We’re hoping that was our issue and we’ll be able to come back a little bit stronger on Tuesday.
WILL IT BE A GOOD THING TO BE BACK ON THE TRACK IN A COUPLE OF DAYS?
I guess it is what it is. A couple of nights from now we’ll get it done again. We’ll have 50 laps to prove that we can run up front.