26 Promotions – Madera, CA – (June 14th, 2017) – Dylan Cappello entered this weekend’s race at Madera Speedway with one goal, end up in victory lane at the end of the night and that’s exactly what he did.
“Coming into the weekend I knew we had a great set of notes to help us prepare for the race,” said Cappello. "We were really good right out of the trailer. We quickly switched to race trim and ran a long run to gauge the car's balance. We learned the even with a gripped-up race track, we needed to start the race tighter.”
Cappello ran the third, fourth and fifth fastest laps in the three practice sessions on Friday night.
Saturday kicked off with two practice sessions that saw Cappello run the fastest lap in session one and the second quickest lap in final practice before qualifying fourth with a lap of 14.593.
“On Saturday we ran some good lap times and that gave us some confidence to qualify well,” he said. “Fourth place wasn’t a bad effort for the team and we knew that put us in a great place for the invert.”
The five-car invert worked perfectly for Cappello, lining him up on the outside of the front row.
“Starting second was the best place in my opinion to start the race,” he explained. “I held the same speed as the leader and I was able to get a nose lead coming to the green flag. With the drive our car had, we were clear by two-car lengths by turn one.”
Cappello had to keep his focus through a plethora of cautions throughout the first half of the race, leading officials to move to single file restarts and counting caution laps around the halfway point. Unlike the first half of the race, the second half ended with a long green flag run, where the Hitman showed just how dominate a car he had.
“With about thirty to go, the caution light finally stayed off and we were able to show what we really had,” said Cappello. “We were clear by a quarter track and then I went into cruise mode with heavy lap traffic in front of me.”
Cappello went on to lead all seventy-five laps crossing the checkered flag with over a four-second lead to pick up his first win, second top five and third top ten of the season.
“Getting this win was so cool for our team,” he said. “It was such a great feeling seeing their hard work pay off. I can’t thank them all enough.”
The Hitman now has two wins, to go along with a second, two-thirds and a fourth-place finish in six appearances at the one-third mile oval.
Next up for the Lucas Oil Modified Series presented by RAM Mounts is a trip to Kern County Raceway in Bakersfield, California. Cappello enters the July 1st race second in the championship points standings, thirty-seven points behind the leader.
“Kern is a really fast track that I enjoy racing at. It takes a big motor and a setup that will roll through the center to keep momentum,” said Cappello. “Jumping up in the points battle was awesome and having momentum after a win will help us to follow-up with some good finishes. Wins are the only outcome we are chasing at this point in the series. If we do our job and run out front, then the rest will take care of itself.”
Dylan would like to thank Ram Mounts, Sears Garage Doors, Spray Nine, Driven Motorsports, Team RBK, Pro Power Racing Engines, Total Power Batteries, Roger Seymour Photography and Bilstein Shocks for their continued support.
Friday’s Practice Results:
Session 1: 3rd, 14.836
Session 2: 4th, 14.7
Session 3: 5th, 14.440
Saturday’s Results:
Practice 1: 1st, 14.603
Final Practice: 2nd, 14.568
Qualifying: 4th, 14.593
Feature: 2nd -> 1st
Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CappelloRacing/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dylancappello11
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylancappello11/
Website: http://www.dylancappello.com/
Article Credit: 26 Promotions