(Image: Howard Twaddell)
26 Promotions – Tucson, AZ – (April 20, 2018) – Dylan Cappello had been looking forward to the Lucas Oil Modified Series event at Tucson Speedway since he left Havasu 95 Speedway with a tenth-place finish.
“The RBK team has been ready to bounce back after a below-par performance in Havasu,” said Cappello. “Practice went well on Friday night; we made multiple changes that benefited the cars long run handling. We made a couple more adjustments following our mock qualifying runs, and I felt very comfortable in the car going into Saturday.”
Saturday’s Lucas Oil Modified Series schedule saw two early afternoon practice sessions before qualifying. Cappello made a couple of baseline runs in the early session to make sure the handling of the car was still where it needed to be as temperatures were drastically different from Friday night’s practice. The team agreed to put new tires on for a mock qualifying run where Cappello laid down a solid time.
“Going into qualifying, I had a lot of confidence in the ability of the race car in both race and qualifying trim,” he explained. “A slightly tight car in the middle hindered us from qualifying in the top five, but inside the top ten set us up for a solid start and a long race ahead to move forward.”
A slow pace at the start allowed the Hitman to make up a few positions on new tires. Following multiple yellows and a red flag, Cappello worked his way up to third with his sights set on the leader.
“The gap was cut in half before lapped cars and a battle with second slowed our forward momentum,” he said. “With another yellow, a last-minute charge could have been made, but a strong second-place finish was what the team needed. We are moving into our strongest set of tracks and having this great finish will add to our momentum moving forward.”
Cappello also picked up a top-ten finish in the Tucson Modified Series on Saturday night.
“I was given the opportunity by Dean Kuhn and the Arcas race team to drive the local number 47 modified throughout the weekend,” explained Cappello. “The driving characteristics were completely different from the Lucas Oil Modified I am used to driving. It was a fun experience which also helped the team get feedback on what I felt in the race car. Qualifying and finishing sixth wasn’t what we expected, but it was a good run against some really good cars that created a building block for races to come.”
The Lucas Oil Modified Series resumes action on May 5th at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the General Tire 75 presented by SuperClean.
Dylan Cappello would like to thank Geico, Quick Response Garage Doors, Spray Nine, Driven Motorsports, Team RBK, Pro Power Racing Engines, Total Power Batteries, Roger Seymour Photography, and Bilstein Shocks for their support.
Lucas Oil Modified Results
Qualifying: 8th, 16.168
Feature: 8th -> 2nd
Tucson Modified Results
Qualifying: 6th, 17.351
Heat: 6th -> 5th
Feature: 4th -> 6th
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CappelloRacing/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dylancappello11
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dylancappello11/
Website: http://www.dylancappello.com/
Article Credit: 26 Promotions