Early Exit in Kentucky for McGilton

 

Sparta, Ky. (July 16, 2007) – Phillip McGilton and the Brewco Motorsports team entered this weekend with confidence from their previous top-10 finish at the Kentucky Speedway and high hopes for of repeating last year’s win.  Following a productive practice and a strong qualifying effort with a 30.862 second lap (174.972 MPH), McGilton started his No. 47 SI Performance Ford Fusion in the 7th position for the WLWT Channel 5-150.  Despite climbing 12 positions between two of the night’s cautions, McGilton lost his hard-fought battle with a loose race car sixteen laps short of the checkered flag finishing in the 29th position. 

The excitement started on the first lap when a car came in tight on the McGilton’s outside and the No. 47 SI Performance Ford Fusion got loose in the center of turns 3 and 4, slipping sideways and then coming down onto the apron of the track.  McGilton visited pit road three times during the yellow flag while his teammates worked on the slight body damage, pulling out the fenders and making adjustments to tighten up the car.  Starting in the middle of the pack for the restart, McGilton continued to run the same speeds as the top-10 contenders.

“I really had to find patience and work my way back up through the field after that first lap,” said McGilton.  “We were faster than a lot of the cars in front of us.  I kept reminding myself that it was a hundred-lap race and knew we had to take care of our stuff because we had a lot of race to go.”

The Brewco Motorsports team had anticipated that the car would tighten up under the lights; however, the car remained loose throughout the race.  At the halfway mark, McGilton was running 18th and on the lead lap.  McGilton worked to provide feedback to Crew Chief Shawn Parker.  The consistent challenge was handling the still loose car through turns 3 and 4.

McGilton demonstrated strong restarts all night and climbed as high as 7th, successfully moving the car through traffic, sometimes in tense three-wide battles.

“We had some close calls out there,” McGilton commented about the three-wide action that took place Friday night.  “One thing I noticed was that there wasn’t a lot of give and take this race like there’s been in the past.  I think the points battle is starting to set in with some of these teams.  This week I found that if you wanted a spot, you had to go after it to get it.  No one was giving up anything out there.”

On lap 84, McGilton got loose coming off of turn 4.  Attempting to correct his line, he found himself into the outside wall.  Although the car suffered minor right-side damage, the impact was severe enough to result in the loss of the car’s brakes.  The team retired behind the wall, finishing in the 29th position.

“We were inside the top-10 at the end there with a pretty good car,” said McGilton.  “We took tires and fuel with that last pit stop and something just didn’t sit quite right.  We were really loose after that.  And I tried to get a little more out of the car than it would give me.  I hate it for my guys.  They worked real hard to give me a good car tonight and I was trying to get them the good finish we had worked all day for.”

McGilton and the Brewco Motorsports team maintain their 6th position in the 2007 ARCA RE/MAX Series Championship points with 2530 points, only 70 points behind 5th place Justin Allgaier and 415 points behind series leader Frank Kimmel.

“We’ve had a little tough luck the last couple of races,” added McGilton.  “But we are only halfway through the season and coming back around to some tracks that we had some strong cars at.  I’m really looking forward to returning to places like Pocono, Salem and Toledo.  We have a lot of season left here and we are going to get a good strong finish to this season.”

McGilton and his teammates have a three-week hiatus to prepare for the Pennsylvania 200 at Pocono Raceway.  The ARCA RE/MAX Series returns to action on Saturday, August 4, 2007.  The race will be broadcast LIVE on SPEED at 1 p.m. EST.

For more on Phillip McGilton, please visit PhillipMcGilton.com

For more on Brewco Motorsports, please log onto Brewco.com  

About Brewco Motorsports, Inc.:

Central City, Kentucky businessman Clarence Brewer Jr. began the construction of his racing enterprise, Brewco Motorsports, in 1996 with one racecar and a small shop. This year, Brewer begins his 12th season as a car owner in the NASCAR Busch Series and second season in the ARCA RE/MAX Series. With an unmatched reputation of delivering results both on and off the track, Brewco has elevated itself to not only a consistent championship contender but the marketing vehicle of some of America’s most trusted brands.

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Media Contact:   
Jody Bartels
(205) 910-4429
jodybartels@turn-two.com