Austin Wayne Self rounded out their race at Elko Speedway with a resilient effort. AWS qualified in the 22 AM Technical Solutions Cunningham Motorsports Dodge with a 14.397 lap time securing a top 10 start. The 22 was spun early on in the race and determinedly worked their way BACK to the top 10 and finished the day P8. Austin Wayne Self’s passing efficiency was once again proven throughout the race and exampled his exceptional race craft and skill.
“Throughout practice we developed a plan to hang in the back and race our way forward, the game plan was conservation… At the beginning of the race we got spun and that put our game plan off pace. There were times when we thought we had the car fast enough but we weren’t able to get it there. I learned the track so that’s all we can ask for.”-AWS
Crew Chief of the 22, Chad Bryant, commented, “The weekend started off really well at Elko with us at the top of the speed chart in practice. We unloaded a really fast race car. After the first run we were fighting a lack of rear grip issue and made a couple of changes. In the heat of the day with the track temps in excess of 120 this seemed to be the direction we needed to go. The race at night was a totally different story. We fought tightness the entire race and had an issue with the right front brake cooling ducts that compounded our problems.” –Chad Bryant
On Monday June 30th the Cunningham Motorsports team tested at their next race stop, Winchester Speedway. Winchester has traditionally been one of Cunningham’s best tracks. Within the past 3 years, Cunningham has two wins and a second-place at Winchester. Austin Wayne Self scored his highest ARCA finish at Winchester in 2013 with a P2. During testing AWS was optimistic towards their performance.
“Testing at Winchester was good, we had 3 cars out there and we all tried different setups. We didn’t get the car exactly where we wanted it, but we learned something and when we show up for the race we will be fast. We have a setup now that we know will work to our advantage, and the car is handling exactly how we want it to.”-AWS
The team has clearly placed an emphasis on race trim and setting the car up for the long run. Crew chief Chad Bryant noted, “Moving forward to Winchester, the whole team is looking forward to going back to the track where we let a race win get away from us last year. We know our chances will be good going into this year’s race with the same car and a very similar set up. Winchester is very different from Elko and I think it fits our team’s style a lot more. We excel at these types of race tracks as a whole. We will have a test under our belts at Winchester as well which should accelerate our progression through practice on race weekend.”- Chad Bryant
The 22 team will be racing with heavy hearts this weekend. In the past week they celebrated the life of Austin’s grandfather who recently passed away in a state the Self family has considered a second home, Indiana, which is also the state Austin will race in this weekend. Indiana continues to be a special place for Austin and his family.
“I finished 2nd last year to Frank Kimmel at Winchester, that’s my best finish in the ARCA series, so it’s safe to say Winchester is one of my favorite tracks. My whole family will be out there in Indiana and having them there makes a huge difference.
We have fun when we come to Winchester and it’s a special place to us, we are racing for more than a win this weekend.”
Austin will wheel the 22 on the .5 mile oval during the Herr’s Chase the Taste 200 presented by Federated Car Care on Sunday, July 6. Austin is currently leading SCOTT Rookie of the Year standings in the ARCA Racing Series. He is 8th in season points and racing towards the top 5. In 8 starts he has collected 5 top 10’s and 2 top 5’s.
You can watch the race from Winchester live on the CBS Sports Network July 6th at 2 p.m. For more information leading up to race day, follow Austin on Facebook and Twitter for behind the scenes pictures, videos and other updates.
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