PETERSEN MEDIA
Justyn Cox can sit back and look at his performance at the Knoxville 360 Nationals, and consider it a success. Though his result on Saturday night wasn’t the greatest, he was pumped just to make the Saturday night feature.
With his weekend starting off on Friday night during preliminary action, the Clarksburg, CA driver showed speed out of the box.
Sitting atop the speed chart after time trials, Cox proceeded to time his Lucas Oil/K&N Products/JRI Shocks backed No. 5h in 15th quickest, putting him in the second row of his heat race.
Settling into the fourth spot, Clint Garner put Cox in the fifth spot, but Cox was able to get into the fourth spot, late in the feature, to put him in the feature event, where he found himself on the pole for the 20-lap shootout.
Leading the first lap, Cox fell into second, as a dominant Justin Henderson, got under him, and took the point.
Working the Knoxville cushion, Cox ran the second spot, until the sixth lap when Kevin Swindell was able to get under him.
Fighting a racecar that was a tick tight, Cox would hang in the top-five as Garner and Shane Stewart got him late, and he finished in the fifth spot, and locked himself into the Saturday night feature.
“I was very pleased with a fifth place finish,” he said. “This is a huge event, and to run that well our first time here as a team was awesome.”
Lining up in the ninth row, Cox found the bottom to his liking, and he slowly worked his way up to the 12th spot, as the race had a very long green-flag run.
At the halfway point, a small oil leak began splashing on his left-rear tire, and Cox had a hard time hitting his marks, and slowly dropped back to the 19th spot under Justin Clark’s checkered flag.
“I was pleased to be in the feature, and happy the car is in one piece,” he said. “We were decent on Saturday night, just sort of lost the handle the part of the race.”
Justyn and his Van Dyke Motorsports team would like to thank Lucas Oil, K&N Products, JRI Shocks, Rodgers Racing Engines, K1 Safety Gear, JRD Endeavors, Sacramento Theatrical Lighting, Worton Designs, and College Cyclery for their support during the 2013 season.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-34, Wins-2, Top 5’s-10, Top 10’s-15
ON TAP: Cox and the Van Dyke Motorsports team will be in action on Monday night at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskalooosa, IA for the Front Row Challenge.
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