Kulhanek Scores Top-10 at Spring Nationals

Ray Allen Kulhanek. (Vince Venella Photo

Ray Allen Kulhanek. (Vince Venella Photo
From Inside Line Promotions

MESQUITE, Texas (March 20, 2017) – Ray Allen Kulhanek capped the 44th annual Spring Nationals with a top-10 finish last Saturday at Devil’s Bowl Speedway.

“I had a lot of speed all weekend long, which was a good change of pace at Devil’s Bowl,” he said. “It seems like we’re behind the eight ball every time we go there, but last weekend every time we hit the track we were going forward. That’s probably what I was the happiest about.”

The Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour doubleheader began on Friday when Kulhanek, who is teaming up with Marvin and Peggy Pearson this season, maneuvered from fourth to second place in a heat race before advancing from fifth to fourth place in a qualifier. That lined him up on the inside of the sixth row for the main event.

“The bottom was pretty much shot so the top was dominant,” he said. “I got freight trained on the start, but I started to make my way back up. I think we were back to 11th when I started getting some water in my face. I looked at the temperature gauge and it wasn’t hot so I thought it was the guy in front of me. I ran up on him into turn one. I dove to the bottom to see if it was my car and sure enough I was still getting sprayed with water so I pulled off. That was disappointing because I felt like we could have been in the top 10 easily. It turns out the cap on the radiator was gone. In all the years I’ve raced I’ve never had that happen.”

Kulhanek was credited with a 19th-place result.

The event concluded on Saturday when Kulhanek charged from seventh to third place in a heat race and from sixth to fourth place in a qualifier. That lined him up on the inside of the fifth row.

“We were really, really good the whole night,” he said. “I took off decent and started making mistakes and fell back as far as 14th. We had a really long green-flag run and I pulled the wing back and started getting a little faster. We had a caution with five laps to go and that really helped me. We went from 12th to eighth after that. I hit the bottom in turns one and two, ran beside them down the backstretch and slid them in turns three and four. We were definitely coming there at the end of the race.”

Kulhanek rebounded to post an eighth-place finish.

“We completed the goal we really wanted to,” he said. “It was a good start to the season for myself. We’ll play it by ear the rest of the season and hit what races we can. I want to thank Marvin and Peggy Pearson for their support as well as all my sponsors. It felt great to get back in the car again.”

Kulhanek will return to action this Saturday at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas, with the ASCS Gulf South Region.