Ryan Partridge Wins NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at Tucson Speedway in Arizona
- 19 May 2016
Ryan Partridge won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Tucson Speedway in Arizona and snapped the three-race winning streak of teenager Todd Gilliland. Partridge took the lead from Gilliland on a green-white-checkered flag finish to the NAPA Auto Parts Wildcat 150. The race was extended to 156 laps. Partridge passed Gilliland on lap 155 and was out front for the final two laps.
"It was probably the easiest race of my life," Partridge said. "When the car is that hooked up on a track like this where you have to save a substantial amount of tire, you are driving Miss Daisy for half the race. You are on a Sunday cruise. When it's hooked up that much, you can't back it up enough." Partridge won the second race of his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West career. He won his first race at Colorado National Speedway in 2015. At Tucson Speedway, Partridge won the pole and led a race-high 127 laps. "At the end we had something to contend for the lead," Partridge said. "Of course we had a green-white-checkered. That's just racing. I don't care how much of a lead, how many laps, you're always going to end in a green-white-checkered. Especially when you're leading, right?"
Gilliland won the first two races of the K&N Pro Series West season. The first was at Irwindale Speedway to start the season. His second came at Kern County Raceway Park in April. He also won the 2015 K&N Pro Series West season finale at Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona in November. Gilliland's runner-up finish at Tucson was the first of his career in the K&N Pro Series West. "I was just giving it all I had," Gilliland said. "That's pretty much all you can do in a green-white-checkered like that. You never know what's going to happen. There's so much that can happen. It was good coming up with second. I am happy with that." Gilliland has a four-point lead over Partridge in the K&N Pro Series West standings after three races.
"We are all getting better as we go," Gilliland said. "I definitely learned from this and I am looking forward to the next track like this." Chris Eggleston, Gilliland's teammate at Bill McAnally Racing and the reigning K&N Pro Series West champion, was third. "That last restart I thought was going to play into our favor, restarting on the bottom," Eggleston said. "We had the lead there for just a little bit, coming out of four for the white flag. I was like, man, we got a shot. It was a great race." Cole Rouse was fourth, followed by Julia Landauer in fifth. The next K&N Pro Series West race is the Sunrise Ford 150 at the Orange Show Speedway in California on May 21. |
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