Kenzie Ruston credited her drive from a starting spot of 15th to finishing second at Iowa Speedway to great car adjustments that gave her "tons of drive" on the high line. She drove to P4 before a late caution let the field pack up and gave Ruston her opportunity for the win. She said the victory probably slipped away when she spun her tires on the final restart.
Brandon Jones held on to win by half a car length. Story here.
Transcript of Ruston's comments after finishing second at Iowa Speedway on August 1:
Q: The second half of the race (there was a competition yellow for all cars at the half-way point of the 150-lap event) seemed to be better half for you and your spotter was saying you were half a second faster than anyone after that. What was the change and how do you account for the better second half?
Kenzie: This is my fourth time here at Iowa Speedway and I’ve never seen the groove move up like that so that really was a shocker to me in the first half. We were just way way way to loose we worked our car to get it good at the bottom and then when everybody moved up I tried to move up and I was just to tight. So we came in and made adjustments to run at the top.
We don’t have as big a motors as Nationwide and Cup so if we can keep it on the top to get it wound up you keep all your momentum. This is the best adjustments we’ve made all year at the break. I'm really proud of my crew chief Mike Fritz for making those adjustments. We were a little too free right on the end to really get on the gas off of four to get that little extra momentum down the front stretch. But I really think we made big big gains this week.
I thought we had a chance. Those last 15-20 laps we were really gaining on the front five. I don’t know if they were just riding and kind of saving tires or what. When I moved up to that top top groove down there in three and four I picked up a ton of speed. I didn’t think that it would stick and it definitely did. I can’t thank my spotter enough for telling me to move up there. I definitely thought we had a fighting chance.
Man, if I wouldn’t have spun my tires right there on the final restart, I felt like I had would have when the double zero (Cole Custer) messed up in 1 and 2 I could probably have drove on him. Things happen for a reason and it just wasn’t my day. I know we had a fast race car and improved all weekend and come out of here with second after starting 15th is definitely a win for us.
Right there at the end, when you are so close to the leader and you are catching him and you are running him down, to know you had the fastest car at the end is kind of disheartening when you don’t get the win.
A news release on the race from Kenzie's team, Ben Kennedy Racing, is here.
For more on Woman of pressdog® Kenzie Ruston, go HERE.
I been trying to follow Kenzie so hope she continues to do well & maybe gets a chance to go to a more major series like trucks or NNS in time? She would have more top 5 finishes also but shes been spun & turned in a couple other races when she was up front that ive seen. In one race recently it was only a couple laps to go & the guy spun her when she was 3rd & she got mad & ran him down during the caution & took his fender off showing some fire--good for her. Hoping she gets someone to give her a better ride in a better series soon as Nascar needs more females in it for sure although Nascar has never been female friendly for sure as look how Danica has been targeted & trashed whereby they Never trash a male driver-- regardless. Course Danica is more popular then most their male winning drivers but Kenzie wont have that issue probably but she appears to be tough enough anyway for the 'good ole boys" series if & when she gets there?
Posted by: vern | August 07, 2014 at 02:59 PM