(Photo by Mike Howard Photos)
Inside Line Promotions – MURFREESBORO, Ark. (Aug. 18, 2020) – Robbie Price recorded a seventh-place finish in the ASCS Sprint Week presented by Smiley’s Racing Products standings behind the strength of four A Main starts in six nights of competition.
The highlight of the week-long grind was a second-place run at Caney Valley Speedway in Caney, Kan., on Wednesday night to go along with a pair of eighth-place finishes last Tuesday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., and Sunday at Diamond Park Speedway. He also scored a 13th-place outing at Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa, Okla., on Thursday night.
“I would’ve liked to have made every A Main, but ultimately I can’t really complain about the week,” he said. “We had some ups and some downs, but ultimately it’s encouraging and a step in the right direction.”
Price kicked off the first of six races last Tuesday night at Lakeside Speedway by laying down a quickest lap of 15.520 seconds in time trials, which was good enough for 13th among 38 drivers in attendance. He finished fourth in a heat race to lock himself into the A Main in the 14th starting spot. Price then passed six cars to finish eighth in the feature.
“We were decent in qualifying, but we were really off in the heat race,” he said. “But we made some changes and the car came around. We were actually pretty good there in the A Main.”
On Wednesday night Price headed 186 miles south to Caney Valley Speedway and he timed in second quickest among 37 cars with a lap of 13.006 seconds. He followed that up by finishing third in a heat race and fourth in a dash to earn the outside fourth row starting spot in the feature.
Price got an outstanding start at the green flag and used the top of the track to advance to the second spot. He settled in there for several laps before falling to third. Price regained the runner-up spot following a late-race caution and pulled alongside the leader on the last lap, but couldn’t make the pass and settled for second. The finish matched his previous best outing of the season and was his second top five of the year.
“We were good from the get-go and we got one heck of a start at the green flag,” he said. “The track was coming to me late and I’ll be kicking myself for a while trying to figure out what I maybe could’ve done different to win that race. I was getting excited as I knew I had the car to beat, but I didn’t want to junk us both trying to win it. You can’t win them all I guess.”
Price’s night ended in the B Main on Thursday at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan. He headed to Creek County Speedway on Friday, timing in 19th quickest among 52 cars in attendance and finishing one spot of transferring to the A Main via a heat race. Price then passed three cars in the B Main to finish third and earn the 18th starting spot in the main event. He followed that up by passing five cars in the feature to finish 13th.
“We went from a great night on the podium to a frustrating night at 81 Speedway and we just didn’t have the right setup at all,” he said. “That feeling kind of carried over to Creek County, but we managed to get it in the show and we made the best of what could’ve been a rough two-race stretch.”
Price failed to qualify for the feature on Saturday at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark., and he headed to Diamond Park Speedway on Sunday for the event finale. He timed in 17th quickest among 22 cars in attendance before finishing seventh in a heat race. As a result, Price lined up 20th in the feature. He passed 12 cars to finish eighth and earn the Hard Charger Award. The top-10 finish was seventh of the season for Price and it helped lock up a seventh-place finish in the six-race standings.
“I-30 was a tough pill to swallow and I was pretty determined to finish out the week strong,” he said. “We were terrible early in the night and we pretty much changed everything on the car heading into the A Main at Diamond Park. Not only did it work, but we learned a lot about where we need to go in the future as well.”
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 11 – Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. – Qualifying: 13; Heat race: 4 (1); Feature: 8 (14).
Aug. 12 – Caney Valley Speedway in Caney, Kan. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 3 (3); Dash: 4 (3); Feature: 2 (8).
Aug. 13 – 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan. – Qualifying: 8; Heat race: 7 (8); B Main: 5 (9).
Aug. 14 – Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa, Okla. – Qualifying: 19; Heat race: 5 (7); B Main: 3 (6); Feature: 13 (18)
Aug. 15 – I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark. – Qualifying: 5; Heat race: 5 (4); B Main: 10 (8).
Aug. 16 – Diamond Park Speedway in Murfreesboro, Ark. – Qualifying: 17; Heat race: 7 (6); Feature: 8 (20).
SEASON STATS –
24 races, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 7 top 10s, 9 top 15s, 12 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
MEDIA LINKS –
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/RPrice21
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rpracing21/
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Champion Brands, LLC
Champion Brands, LLC, is a globally recognized industry leader in specialty lubricants for over 60 years. Champion also produces and blends over 300 products including fuel, oil, engine additives, and lubricants for the racing, automotive, heavy truck, agricultural, industrial, and specialty markets. For more information about Champion, visit http://www.championbrands.com.
“Champion Brands, LLC has been a great partner of ours for a few years now,” Price said. “They do a lot of racing and our program and I’d recommend them to anyone out there.”
Price would like to thank Millstone Heating & Sheet Metal, Shockwave Motorsports, Wildlight Motorsports Photography, Shark Racing Engines, Triple X Race Components, Highline Performance and Beaufort Self Storage Ltd. 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 Aug 18, 2020
- Article Date: 8/18/2020 by Inside Line Promotions