MIKEY KILE MAKES HIS
TURNER MOTORSPORTS DEBUT
LEBANON, Tenn. (April 24, 2011) – Mikey Kile and the No. 30
AccuDoc Solutions team headed to ‘Music City’ this weekend for the
Nashville 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. Excited to make his Turner
Motorsports debut, Kile was ready to get to work wheeling his No. 30
machine around the 1.333-mile D-shaped oval. Having made his first
laps in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) ‘new’ car just days
before heading to Nashville he knew he would have his work cut out
for him. After two successful practice sessions on Friday, finishing
14th in each session, and a solid qualifying effort on Saturday, Kile
worked his way through the adversity of a parts failure to finish 29th
in his debut event with the powerhouse team. Kile will make several
more starts with the organization in 2011 returning to the No. 30
driver’s seat at Chicagoland Speedway in June.
Completing two successful practice sessions on Friday, Kile went on to lay down a solid qualifying lap, good enough to land him in the 22nd position to start Saturday afternoon’s 225-lap race. Having spent time talking to all three of his Turner Motorsports teammates he felt ready to strap into the No. 30 AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet Impala. Almost immediately upon the drop of the green flag, Kile reported a free-handling condition in his Chevy. Veteran crew chief, and Nashville-native, Stewart Cooper assured his driver they would work on the issue, coaching the 28-year-old rookie around the race track.
As the first long green-flag run of the day came to a close, with NASCAR displaying the yellow flag for debris on lap 50, Kile radioed that the free condition had worsened and he needed more grip in his AccuDoc Solutions machine. Cooper called him to pit road for four fresh tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. After the quick stop by the AccuDoc Solutions pit crew, Kile returned to the track in the 20th position. As he continued to race over the next long green-flag run, the free condition persisted in the No. 30 machine.
On lap 116, Cooper called his driver to pit road for a green-flag pit stop. The AccuDoc Solutions crew changed four tires, added fuel and made another track bar adjustment. When the caution flag waved on lap 135, Cooper made the call to stay on the race track to benefit from the wave-around rule, getting one lap back to leaders. When the caution flag was quickly displayed again, Cooper took the chance to bring Kile onto pit road for fresh tires, fuel and a round of chassis and air pressure adjustments.
As another caution period was called a few laps later, Cooper brought Kile to pit road once again for fuel only, setting his driver up on a fuel strategy to make it to the end. Racing inside the top-25 for a majority of the remainder of the event, Cooper brought Kile to pit road once again under the lap 178 caution for four tires, fuel and adjustments. Just a few laps after the field returned to green-flag racing conditions, Kile reported he felt he had a right-front tire going down.
Coming to pit road under green-flag conditions, the AccuDoc Solutions crew changed the right-side tires. Seeing the tire was not flat, the No. 30 team began to prepare for something worse. Almost immediately, Kile returned to pit road still feeling as though a tire was going down. After changing the left-side tires, the No. 30 crew saw a problem. Kile returned to the track reporting very rough driving conditions with the team diagnosing a possible shock failure. After taking the checkered flag in the 29th position, the team diagnosed the issue as a sway bar failure. Kile will return to the seat of the No. 30 Chevrolet in the NNS event at Chicagoland Speedway in June.
Next Stop: The NASCAR Nationwide Series teams head to Richmond International Raceway next weekend for the Bubba Burger 250. The Friday night race will be broadcast LIVE on SPEED and on MRN Radio affiliates. LIVE coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. EST with the green flag scheduled to drop at 8:00 p.m.
