8/8/2013
Sprint Source
Brad Loyet – Nationals Rookie Excited for Tonight!
(Bill W) August 8, 2013 – Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx #o5 team are ready for tonight’s qualifying at the 53rd Annual Knoxville Nationals. Their confidence is high going in, having qualified for last weekend’s 360 Nationals. The Sunset Hills, Missouri driver will be among nineteen rookies at the Nationals.
The 360 Nationals started last Thursday with an all important good qualifying lap. “We were able to draw a good pill and that gave us the ability to time in fourth quick,” says Brad. “The car was running well in the heat (6th to 3rd) and we were able to put it in the show. It was a deal where we knew we needed to finish the A main and we had a shot at locking in.”
Brad would do just that, finishing twelfth in the prelim. “We thought we had a good car…we just left a little too much on the table,” he says. “We weren’t quite tight enough. We ended up sliding back to twelfth, but it was still enough to lock us into the show. That was a good deal for us. It was our second year up here, and that was the main goal for us.”
When Saturday’s finale checkered, Brad would find himself ninth after starting eleventh. “We had a really good car,” he says. “We changed quite a bit from Thursday. The car handled awesome. Our problem was, the track was in such great shape, it was hard to go anywhere. I think we passed a couple cars and ran ninth. We had a good car; it just didn’t show what it was capable of.”
Brad would make his first 410 start ever at Knoxville in Sunday’s “Capitani Classic”, featuring 81 cars. “We drew another good number,” he says. “For not ever racing a 410 at Knoxville…and not much at Knoxville period…I thought we laid down a pretty decent lap for the competition that was there. We missed the heat invert by four cars, which was like nine-thousandths of a second. That was kind of a bad deal.”
He would run eighth in a heat that took the top four to the A. “At the start of the heat, I think Sammy (Swindell) and Kevin (Swindell) got together,” says Brad. “I had to check up big time and I was probably running tenth at that point. I was able to get back to eighth, but that sent us to the B.”
That would be a learning experience. “I had a pretty good car,” says Brad. “They only took two, so it was one of those things where we wanted to get laps. I tightened the car up a little bit more, and it felt good. I went to pass a car on the bottom, and I spun it sideways and tagged the wall. It pushed the frame over about two feet. We made sure it was the last night we raced that one!”
The week of racing concluded with the Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. “The track was lockdown heavy,” says Brad. “We started in the last row and got by a few cars, but that wasn’t enough passing points. We started fourth in the B, and the track wasn’t much wider. We ran third. I had my foot hard to the floor and that’s all she had. Everyone fell in a line.”
Starting towards the tail of the B, Brad would take it back to the trailer early. “It was a show-up points race (for ASCS), and we knew that,” he says. “We knew we’d have to pass quite a few cars to get to the front. We didn’t want to put thirty laps of wear and tear on our motor if we didn’t have to and we called it a night about five laps in.”
Brad can take some confidence into tonight’s Nationals based on the way he felt about the car on Sunday. “We qualified 34th out of 81 cars on Sunday, and when you think about it, there aren’t going to be near that many tonight,” he says. “When you think of it that way, you feel a lot better about your chances and it gives you some confidence heading in.”
Brad’s Weekly Releases
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Brad and the Loyet Motorsports team would like to thank primary sponsors: Vacuworx Global, Miller Truck Lines, and Loyet Landscape Maintenance. Associate sponsors: Maxim Race Cars, J and D Performance Racing Engines, Butlerbuilt Professional Seat Systems, Meramec Heights Collision Center, KSE Racing, Weld Wheels, Penske Shocks, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Hepfner Racing Products, DMI, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Bell Helmets, TI 64, Conroy Control, The Engine Heater, Ealey Transportation, and Speedway Motors.
Brad in action at the Southern Iowa Speedway (Bryan Hulbert/ASCS Photo)
Article Credit: Bill Wright
Submitted By: Admin Account
