From Inside Line Promotions
Wheatland, MO — (June 23, 2013) — While a fifth-place finish in the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour Sizzlin’ Summer Speedweek points wasn’t what Tony Bruce Jr. had imagined, he is impressed with the direction of his program as the summer is beginning to heat up.
“I feel like it wasn’t exactly what we wanted as far as the finish in the points, but our team showed a lot of resilience,” he said. “I think we’re finding speed at the right time. We kinda struggled at the beginning of the year to get rolling. We passed more cars than anybody in the features during Speedweek. I’m pretty satisfied with where things are going.”
In the six Speedweek races, Bruce Jr. officially passed a total of 46 cars. He finished with three top-five finishes and five top 10s, including a trio of solid performances this past weekend.
“We only made the redraw once,” he said. “To have top fives and almost a win and finish in the top 10 almost every single night showed how fast we were.”
Bruce Jr. started the second half of the Speedweek on Wednesday at Lawton Speedway in Lawton, Okla., by winning his fifth heat race of the season from the pole.
“We really haven’t been drawing good,” he said. “We finally drew good. It put us on the pole for a heat race. The only problem is it put us on the pole for the sixth heat race. If there was absolutely no passing the best we could have been in points was sixth.”
Bruce Jr. had the 12th-most points after the heat races, which started him on the outside of the sixth row for the main event.
“The track had two lanes, but it was kind of weird because it wasn’t really racy,” he said. “Neither lane would be faster than the other. We were all the exact same speed. We just caught some cars trying different lines and they made a mistake and I was able to capitalize on it. We were really one of the only cars to go forward.”
Bruce Jr. finished eighth as he was one of only six drivers to pass four or more cars during the feature.
Speedweek continued on Thursday at Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa, Okla., where Bruce Jr. nearly picked up his third victory of the season.
After maneuvering from seventh to fourth in his heat race, Bruce Jr. began the feature 11th. Within a handful of laps he had climbed into the top five and was up to second halfway through the main event. Chasing eventual Speedweek champion Jeff Swindell, Bruce Jr. made the pass for the lead on Lap 24 only to have a caution disallow the lead swap and put him back to second.
“We actually had him passed one time in lapped traffic and unfortunately the caution fell and they put us behind him,” Bruce Jr. said. “Out in open air it’s hard to pass a guy. We were all over him and I think we had a better car, but we needed the race to stay in traffic really bad.”
Bruce Jr. made one last-ditch effort with a slide job in turns three and four on the final lap, but too much momentum carried him off the track and Swindell was able to hold onto the win.
“It was just another typical quarter mile and for some reason I roll really nice on quarter miles,” Bruce Jr. said. “Wayne got the car about as perfect as I could ask for. We just about won it. We had a last-lap try for the win and unfortunately I threw too hard of a slider, drove over the cushion and into the wall. You’ve gotta try to make the move and make it happen.”
Speedweek wrapped up on Saturday at Lucas Oil Speedway, where he drove from fourth to third in his heat race. That started Bruce Jr. on the outside of the seventh row for the main event.
“I wasn’t aggressive enough on the start,” he said. “I missed the bottom a couple of times and fell back to 20th at the beginning of the race. I just slowly picked our way back to the front. I felt if we had more laps we could have been sixth or seventh. I just didn’t get the job done early in the A Main.”
Bruce Jr. salvaged a 10th-place finish – his 18th of the season.
He plans to take this weekend off before embarking on a month-long road trip with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour to the West Coast, which begins on Saturday, July 6, at I-90 Speedway in Hartford, S.D.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 19 – Lawton Speedway in Lawton, Okla. – Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 8 (12).
June 20 – Creek County Speedway in Sapulpa, Okla. – Heat race: 4 (7); Feature: 2 (11).
June 22 – Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. – Heat race: 3 (4); Feature: 10 (14).
SEASON STATS –
27 races, 2 wins, 11 top fives, 18 top 10s, 25 top 15s, 27 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday, July 6, at I-90 Speedway in Harford, S.D., with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.tonybrucejr.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
VIDEO –
Here is a link for RacinBoys’ footage of Bruce Jr.’s victory at Boyd Raceway on April 26: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
APPAREL –
Bruce Jr. has black and white t-shirts in adult sizes for sale at his race trailer at each of his races. For his schedule, visit TonyBruceJr.com/schedule.