Photo – Irwindale Event Center
Toni McCray is our next guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR & Race Talk on Monday, July 7, 2014 at 9:30 pm ET. Call 347-996-5176 during the LIVE broadcast to interact with Toni McCray and the Fan4Racing panel.
Toni McCray swept the Lucas Oil Late Model Twins features putting her team into championship contention at Irwindale Speedway this weekend.
In the first event and from her starting spot of eighth, McCray raced to the lead by the 12th lap and finished two car lengths ahead of the field and second-place finisher, Trevor Huddleston.
She started fourth in the second feature and passed Ryan Partridge for the lead on the 17th lap, winning by six car lengths by the checkered flag.
McCray’s wins become her second and third of the season and closed the gap to the points leader Ryan Partridge by eight points. She’s now second in points trailing Partridge by 18 points with ten features left to run. Partridge has five wins and finished fourth in the first feature of the night.
McCray says she didn’t expect to lead in the first race.
“I kinda surprised myself,” McCray said. “We didn’t qualify good. We were really tight. I came back (to the pits) and said, ‘We really have to free it up.’ They made some changes and told me, ‘You’re going to be better.’ I go, ‘I’m going o drive the wheels off of it. We need to win both of these races, we’ve gotta catch Partridge. The only way we’re going to be in the championship hunt is if we win more races. I’m determined to win as many as I can and I know I’m going to have to race hard to be up on it every race, every lap.
“So, I did what I had to do.”
McCray was third for the first restart behind Huddleston and Christian McGhee on the tenth lap.
“They (Huddleston, McGhee) definitely made contact going down the back straightaway,” McCray said. “When I saw that going on, I knew I needed to go to the bottom right away. So I ran the bottom. The 71 (McGhee) got somewhat of a run off of (turn) four on me, but I was door to door with him, so I ran it into (turn) one really hard and coming off of two and going down the back straightaway. I cleared him going into three.”
In the next feature, McCray asked her Crew Chief Rip Michaels to loosen up the back.
“They actually freed it up a little bit more for me because I was still tight on entry and right in the middle of the corner,” McCray said. “Rip (Michaels) did a little adjustment for me. The car was really good. We were on rails. The car has been good every week. We’ve had some bad starting positions, but I’m getting better at racing. I want the championship and I’m going to fight Ryan (Partridge) hard for it.”
McCray’s next chance to compete for the championship is Saturday, July 19th for another Late-Model Twins lineup and the Super Late Model event at Irwindale Speedway.