A busy winter for Willie Croft saw him kick his season off Friday night in Chico, CA. On an unusually slick surface that ended up taking rubber, Croft would close his night with a fourth place finish.
“We had a really busy winter re-tooling for the 2017 season, and I really have to thank everyone who made it all possible,” Willie Croft said. “It was nice to finally get back racing, and it ended up being an okay night.”
Kicking the season off by timing the Holey Smokes BBQ/ButlerBuilt/Factory Kahne backed No. 29 machine in fastest during qualifying time trials. Lining up alongside Kyle Hirst in heat race action, Croft would settle for a second place finish and earn a place in the night’s redraw.
Pulling the two pill, Croft would line his potent entry up on the front row of the feature event where he would again be alongside Hirst coming to the green. As the night went on, the track would continue to slick off and be tough to get traction in the early goings of the feature event.
When the race went green, Croft and Hirst would battle for real estate on the bottom of the speedway as the Roseville, CA wheelman ran in the second spot. Falling back to third following an early restart, Croft would continue to stay committed to the bottom as he chased after Hirst and now DJ Netto.
As the laps clicked of, the track would start taking rubber on the high side of the speedway, and as Croft changed lanes to find it he now ran in fourth. Once the rubber went down, action became single file and Croft would close his opening night with a Top-Five finish.
“Overall it was an okay first night out,” Willie Croft added. “We have some work to do before Las Vegas (NV), but I am happy with our start.”
Willie Croft Racing would like to thank Holey Smokes BBQ, ButlerBuilt , Brown and Miller, FK Rod Ends, Hinchman Indy, Factory Kahne, Schoenfeld, Smith Precision Products, Kaeding Performance, AL Drivelines, QTM, XYZ, Dan Olson Products, Vortex Wings, Amerikote, and GUTS for their support in 2017.