PETERSEN MEDIA
Looking to defend his 2012 Trophy Cup Championship, Jason Meyers put his Tarlton Racing machine in position to do so, but came up a little short, and wound up finishing second in the standings.
“We were really good early, but the car got a little free towards the end,” Meyers said. “I saw the two leaders wreck, and ultimately checked up and lost a couple of spots, and thought we were going to have a green-white-checkered.”
During the two-day event that puts some of the best talent in the world in Tulare, CA, Meyers opened his weekend up by timing his Corporate American Investments/Tarlton and Son/Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino entry in fifth fastest against the 81 cars entered in the event.
Lining up sixth in his heat race, the Clovis, CA pilot muscled his way up to the second spot, putting him in the opening night feature event.
Sitting second in points heading into the feature, Meyers lined up in the sixth row, along side Kyle Larson, as the top 12 in points were inverted.
When the race went green, Meyers was able to work both the high, and low side on the racy speedway, as he charged toward the front, looking to acquire as many points as possible.
At the halfway point, Meyers sat in the seventh spot, but still looked for more. Battling with the likes of Kyle Larson and Jonathan Allard over the closing laps, Meyers was able to work into the fourth spot at the finish, but more importantly sat in the third spot in event points heading into Saturday night’s finale.
Starting eighth in his heat race, Meyers wasn’t able to get the run to the front and earn more points in the process as he had hoped as he scored a fifth place finish.
His finish wasn’t too costly however, as he was still in the third spot heading into the 50-lap feature, and started in the 11th row of the completely inverted event.
When the race got going, Meyers was poised to get to the front as fast as he could, and to hope he could distance himself from both Kyle Larson and Tim Kaeding, who both sat ahead of him in Trophy Cup standings.
When the red flew on the 11th lap, Meyers had worked into the 13th spot, just one spot ahead of Larson, but several ahead of Kaeding.
After a lengthy delay to repair the fence, Meyers flexed his muscle during a very long green flag run, as he flew around the slick Thunderbowl Raceway racing towards the front.
With just 15 laps to go, Meyers sat in the third spot, but several lapped cars in between the leaders had him nearly mid pack.
Over the closing laps, Meyers seemed to lose his car a bit as he didn’t looked to be able to move forward as he sat in the fourth spot battling with Roger Crockett.
The last lap proved to be interesting as the leaders wrecked coming out of turn four, and as this happened Meyers checked up a little expecting to see the red flag, but the checkered flew, and he was credited with a fourth place finish, and a second place finish in the standings.
“I have to thank Paul Baines and everyone who worked on this thing all weekend,” he continued. “The Tarlton’s gave me a tremendous opportunity this year, and I thank them for everything they have provided me with.”
Tarlton Racing would like to thank Corporate America Investments, Tarlton and Son, Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino, Bandy and Associates, Pro Signs, BG Lubricants, All Star Performance, Winters Performance, XYZ Machining, Factory Kahne, Carillo Rods, Victory Valves, Kinser, Fel Pro, Bosch, Brown and Miller, and Astro Titanium for their continued support.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Races-22, Wins-3, Top 5’s- 7, Top 10’s-12.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay connected with Jason by visiting www.eliteracing.net or follow @Tarlton_Racing on Twitter.