(Photo by Gary Cornelison)
Inside Line Promotions – KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 4, 2018) – Mason Daniel made his third trip of the season to Knoxville Raceway last Saturday and he continued to gain valuable experience at the famed half-mile oval.
Daniel and his team tried a new setup in qualifying and the heat race. The Californian was 18th quickest in time trials and Daniel finished fourth in a heat race after starting on the pole for the seven-lap contest.
“I liked the new setup for hot laps and qualifying, but couldn’t really race with it,” he said. “The track was on the bottom in the heat race and I struggled hitting my marks down there. That’s why we fell back to fourth.”
Daniel’s team changed the car back to their original setup for the 18-lap main event. Late in the race he was able to pass a handful of cars and ended up crossing the finish line 13th to earn his second top-15 finish in his third career start at Knoxville.
“We started off kind of slow in the main event and then in the last four or five laps we ran the seventh-fastest lap of the race,” he said. “It was kind of my fault. I found the right line too late in the race. I learned from it and will move on. I’ll know when I go back there that I’ll need to start searching around earlier to find the right line.”
Each time that Daniel signs in at Knoxville Raceway he has continued to learn the nuances of the track and applies what he learns. He will return to the venue again this Saturday as he looks to earn his first top-10 result there.
“For only being my third time at Knoxville, I feel comfortable there now,” he said. “At the end of the race we were full throttle on top and that’s actually when I got by all the cars. For the first 14 laps we were on the bottom trying to make that work and once I moved up to the topside we were really fast. I was pleased with the car and our motor program.”
Daniel will visit another new track this weekend as he continues to add to the ever-growing list of facilities that he is seeing for the first time. He will take the green flag with the ASCS Warrior Region at the ultra-high-banked U.S. 36 Raceway in Osborn, Mo., on Friday.
“I’ve raced about 15 times this year and have only been to two tracks more than once,” he said. “I’ve experienced 10 new tracks and that’s more tracks than are in Northern California. It’s definitely fun to be out here in the Midwest and going to all of these new tracks. We’ve been competitive at these new tracks, which is great.”
QUICK RESULTS –
June 2 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 18; Heat race: 4 (1); Feature: 13 (16).
SEASON STATS –
15 races, 0 wins, 3 top fives, 5 top 10s, 10 top 15s, 12 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday at U.S. 36 Raceway in Osborn, Mo., with the ASCS Warrior Region and Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa
MEDIA LINKS –
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MasonDRacing
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Valley Pacific
Valley Pacific has supplied high-quality, competitively priced fuels and lubricants throughout California since 1947. For more information, visit http://www.VPPS.net.
“Every step of the way from micros to midgets to sprint cars they’ve helped us,” Daniel said. “We’re grateful to have a long-term relationship with everyone at Valley Pacific.”
Daniel would also like to thank Dillon Risk Management, Young’s Commercial Transfer, Fresno Truck Center, Golden State Peterbilt, Bell Helmets and Schoenfeld Headers for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Jun 04, 2018
- Article Date: 6/4/2018 by Inside Line Promotions