Austin Daniel looked like he would be a contender for the win in the first race of the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Late Model Stock Tour before running out of fuel late in the race and being relegated to a 22nd place finish. Now, the two-time Hickory Motor Speedway champion is looking ahead to Orange County Speedway for a change of luck.
McDaniel started the day at Southern National fastest in practice and backed it up in qualifying with a seventh place effort in qualifying. For 144 laps, McDaniel ran inside the top-10 but the fuel tank went dry on the 144th lap of the race, ending McDaniel’s strong effort.
“We were fastest in practice, qualified seventh and then got up there, rode in second from lap 50 to lap 120,” McDaniel said. “Then, on a late restart, I got shuffled back to fifth or sixth and then ran out of gas with like five to go.”
After the performance at Southern National, McDaniel has no reason to have his confidence shaken. The 20-year-old driver has set his sights on Saturday night’s Orange Blossom 300, a race McDaniel feels will be more of an equalizer in terms of competition than Southern National was.
What will it take for him to win at Orange County though?
“I think everybody’s asking what it will take to win,” McDaniel stated. “Not everybody’s races there every week. Everybody will be on an even playing field. Riding will be a big thing. If you can keep your nose clean and be there at the end, anything can happen. We have to put ourselves in position to be there at the end. We kind of rode and got shuffled back.”
McDaniel already expects some drivers to be stronger than others at Orange County and he has already identified which drivers he thinks he will have to beat to be victorious on Saturday night.
“Deac McCaskill, Tommy Lemons and Todd Gilliland will be really strong,” McDaniel remarked. “The biggest thing will be figuring out the lines. It’s a multi-groove track. People have an idea where to run but they’ll be experimenting and moving around, finding out if the bottom’s fastest or the top. It’ll be interesting to see how the grooves play out.”
For McDaniel, this will be his first trip to Orange County in a Late Model. McDaniel has raced at Orange County in a Legends car in the past. Following Orange County, the series will head to a track McDaniel is very familiar with – Hickory Motor Speedway, a track he won the championship at in 2012 and 2013.
“That’s our home track and we’ll have a shot at it even though the setup will be different,” McDaniel commented. “We have an idea how the car will react. I have plenty of laps at the track. The track’s a bullring so it’ll be tough racing and survival will the biggest thing there.”
While other drivers feel one bad race can end a driver’s championship efforts, McDaniel expects everyone to possibly have a bad race. He knows that he, right now, faces an uphill climb in the championship picture but he still feels like he can get the job done if he races smart and runs up front consistently for the rest of the season.
“I definitely think we can rebound,” McDaniel explained. “It’s going to hinder us but I think everybody will have a bad race. Even though we had a bad race, I don’t hope to wish bad luck on somebody, but I think they’ll have some too. We’re definitely not out of it. We’ve got to be strong and work as hard as we can to have strong runs. I don’t think SNMP will hurt us that bad if we consistently have strong runs.”
Heading into Saturday’s race, McDaniel already has a win this season which came in a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car race at Hickory Motor Speedway on March 7th.
The Orange Blossom 300 at Orange County Speedway will be held on Saturday, April 18th. RACE22.com will have up to the minute coverage on our website and on Twitter. Along with RACE22.com’s digital coverage, RACEFEEDX.com will have live, streaming video coverage of the race.
