June 20, 2016 – A very successful Lucas Oil ASCS Speedweek culminated with two wins for Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx Global #o5 team. The Sunset Hills, Missouri driver had a legitimate shot at the championship had a heat race incident beyond the team’s control at Creek County Speedway near Sapulpa, Oklahoma not taken place. Despite drawing no heat starting spot better than the third row, Brad finished second in points for the week. Victories were picked up on Wednesday at Lawton Speedway in Oklahoma and Friday at Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia.
Speedweek started a week ago Saturday, at Route 66 Motor Speedway near Amarillo, Texas. “When we got there, it was bone dry, but they drenched it right before we were to go out for hot laps,” says Brad. “It was a long delay, but it was worth it. We ended up two spots out of the feature redraw, so we started tenth. We were rolling the bottom, but felt like I was better than the cars in front of me. We started blasting the top, and we were able to make it work on the restarts. We were able to pick up a car every couple of laps. We ran sixth. I felt like we had a top five car, so it wasn’t a bad way to start the week.”
A date at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas was a wash Tuesday, and the series rolled into Lawton Wednesday. “Lawton is a place we’ve always run well at, but we’d never won,” says Brad. “We had an awesome car in the heat race, running from eighth to third. We were able to roll the top, and the car worked really nice.”
Brad would draw the three pill for the feature. “The bottom was pretty good, and we ran there about three laps,” he says. “We were fourth and I felt we had a better car than the guys in front of me. We put it up top, and two laps later, we were in the lead. That was pretty much the end of it there. Lapped traffic got a little tricky, and I noticed they were running a little lower. They were finding some rubber, so we moved down there. The yellow came out with five to go, and we just ran in the rubber the rest of the way. It was nice to finally get a win and have things go our way.”
At Creek County, things would not go the team’s way. Brad would start sixth in the heat. “We were up to third,” he says. “The caution came out, which put us back in fourth. (Channin) Tankersley had crashed and an official had pulled their four-wheeler onto the track. Their toolbox fell out on the track and there were screwdrivers and sockets out there. They didn’t all get picked up, and we cut a tire instantly. It took five minutes to hook me up on the wrecker. We got it changed, but they wouldn’t let us back out. With the Qualifier format, which is supposed to give you a second chance…we didn’t even make their 30-car cut so we didn’t even get to run that.”
That sent him to the back of the B. “It was just bad luck, none of which was our fault,” says Brad. “We had to start at the back of the B and made it up to fourth, one spot out of the transfer. That pretty much killed our hopes of winning Speedweek. Since there are no points for running the feature, we elected to take a lap and pull in.”
Things turned around quickly at Sedalia Friday. “We were looking forward to getting back to Sedalia,” says Brad. “Since talking to Matt Hummel, we’ve found something we really like with our shocks on the big tracks. We were able to go from seventh to third in the heat, which was enough to get in the redraw.”
Brad would start outside row two for the main event. “We fell into second pretty quickly,” he says. “It was one of those nights where you know the car is good. It was just perfect. It was rotating so nice up there on top. We were gaining on them slowly, and we got to lapped traffic. We were able to make a move at that point and slide into the lead. At the exact same time, a rock, which must have come off his car, hit our nose wing. That put the nose wing down on the down tubes. I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
He would have his work cut out for him in the final laps. “That made the car a little tighter on entry, which at times helped me,” says Brad. “But if I hit it wrong, it was a handful for sure. Luckily, we were able to hold on. There was a yellow as I was going down the back straightaway on the white flag lap. On the restart, the left rear tire was shaking really bad, and I knew the tires were killed. We were able to hold on though. It was cool, because my crew guys from thirty minutes away from there. There were a lot of friends and family in the stands. The tires were shot though!”
Speedweek concluded Saturday at Lucas Oil Speedway near Wheatland, Missouri. “We’ve been really good at Wheatland the last few years,” says Brad. “We look at our notes from three years ago there, and we’re doing the same things. In the heat, we started in the third row again. We were able to get by Steven Russell, who blew up there, and go ahead and get the win. That made us high-point driver for the Qualifiers, which I’m not a big fan of. We started sixth in that, and ran third. That ended up being enough to put us on the pole of the feature.”
Brad would start alongside Matt Covington. “On the start, Covington and I took off about as even as we could,” he says. “He had just a little more than me. I was trying to get to the bottom, and he pinched us just enough that we couldn’t rotate it. That pushed me up the racetrack, and Sam (Hafertepe) got around me at that point. We were able to get by Covington about five or ten laps in. We ran Sam down in traffic. He was better than us in the open, but in traffic, we were better. We were able to slide him for the lead twice. The one time, he was able to turn back under me. The second time, I overdrove it, and jumped the curb. That was pretty much it then, and we ended up second.”
Overall, it was a very successful week for the #o5 team and they seem to have their ASCS bad luck behind them. “We had two wins, and a second,” says Brad. “The way I look at it, the worst finish we had, that was under our control was a sixth.”