PASS Sportsman Series: Dan McKeage
Oxford Plains Speedway Race Report
OXFORD, Maine – Dan McKeage of Gorham, Maine, finished eighth in the rain-shortened PASS Sportsman Series 75 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, on Friday, July 19. Severe weather and a heavy downpour passing through the area brought out the first and only caution flag of the night on Lap 57, and the race was never restarted. McKeage qualified fourth in the Naughty 40 Racing No. 40 Top Gun Construction/J.P. & Family Roofing Chevrolet, but the same strong car he had throughout the day never materialized once feature racing began. McKeage will round out his weekend with a 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Pro Series race at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Saturday, July 20.
WHO: Dan McKeage, Gorham, Maine
TEAM: Naughty 40 Racing No. 40 Top Gun Construction/J.P. & Family Roofing Chevrolet
WHAT: PASS Sportsman Series 75
WHERE: Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine (.375-mile oval)
STARTED: 4th
FINISHED: 8th
NEXT RACE: August 4, PASS Sportsman Series 75, White Mountain Motorsports Park, N. Woodstock, N.H. (.25-mile oval)
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DAN, YOU HAD A LONG NIGHT.
The heat race wasn’t nearly as good as it was in practice. That heat race actually showed signs of what it would end up being in the feature – which wasn’t that good. We were really optimistic, but it just didn’t go as well as we hoped, to be honest.
WHAT WERE YOU FIGHTING WITH?
Just struggling all the way around, really. We needed more grip getting off the corner, so we tried a few things to get off the corner, and it just hurt us getting in the corner and through the middle. We weren’t good at all three phases of it after we adjusted on it. It really killed the entry and the middle of the corner.
I had two of those parts really good the few times we were here, but I just couldn’t get off the corner like I wanted to. I guess we’ll have to go back and re-think things, because we still have a couple more visits up here this year.
WOULD A CAUTION HAVE HELPED YOU AT ALL?
Not unless a whole bunch of cars crashed so we could come in and tune on it. Really, when you’re out there, all a caution would have done was bunch the field up and then probably a couple more cars would have passed me.
There were still decent enough cars out there where if we did get fortunate enough to have a few cautions and make adjustments, we still would have needed more cautions after that to keep bunching the field up. We’d have needed that help to make up six or eight positions, because, really, the car was just that bad.