2014 Race 16 - Pensacola (Verizon 200)

Top: Legge's strategy
Flop: Nobody really. Maybe the pit strategies. Overall this race was kind of a flop.

Will Legge Overwhelmed With Emotion After 3rd Career Win

Will Legge's last win came coincidentally at Race 16 of last season at Saskatchewan in Canada. His first win, Calgary, Canada, Race 8. Now celebrating his 3rd career win, his first in America, Legge is nothing short of emotional. Behavior ranging from crying, laughing and, screaming, it all boils down to one emotion. Joy. After a hard year with Legge being up and down in points and a driver in his AAPT program being seriously injured recently, you can see the stress leaving his body for one sweet moment.

"Man... I-I needed Something like this and it couldn't have come at a better time... Just with Ike being hurt and our other teams being up and down... I just really needed this you know... God... Lets see Race 8, Race 16, now Race 16 again... Man I really hope I don't  have to wait 32 races for the next one. God I'm happy. It's been a great day and top make it even better is that Emma was also able to make some ground as well so... That's just the cherry."

Will Legge moves up to 11th in the points after an amazing day.

Lester not overly satisfied with performance, drops to 3rd in points

The high banks and sweeping corners of the Pensacola International Speedway's infield road course were not overly challenging for the drivers of the AMP Energy Racing Series; they challenged each other moreso than the track. Will Legge cruised to the lead following the failed pit strategy of the leaders before him and won his third career AERS race, bringing a much-needed boost to a crippled Legge Motorsports organization, as well as Ovota Motorsports' AERS program, who has had bad race after bad race with Lapinski and Scransen. Perhaps Legge's win could spark a resurgence in the team and lead to better finishes as the season begins to wind down.

Nate Smith maintains at least 100 points to 2nd place, this time Mack DiCario holding the position as Casey Lester's 30th-place finish was not enough to hold it. Smith himself finished 37th, on the Gerrelds/Hensler strategy, and found himself with the short end of the stick after a good drive up near the Top 5 for most of the race in that #83 Skittles Pontiac. DiCario trails Smith by 106 points and Lester trails DiCario by 3. From there, it's a whopping 108 points to 4th place Justin Pisani, who has been characteristically consistent, but not successful enough to hang with the Top 3 contenders.

"It's a bit frustrating to have fallen into such a slump we've been in.", said the Renesse Racing rookie. "You watch everything click week after week and think 'Hey, we've got a shot at the title already!' and next thing you know, it starts falling apart. It's almost like the Cold War and that one quote: "We're eyeball to eyeball and the other guy just blinked" yet we're the other guy in this case. What makes it worse for us is that I would have at least expected Nate [Smith] to fall as well, but he's held up far longer than I think anybody would've imagined he would. If this championship is his, he and that team have earned it. I'm not saying that I'm giving up, but he'll have earned this title if he does take it." Lester finished on that and walked back to his hauler, laid back like his usual self.

Hensler shines at Pensacola, despite not finishing in top 10.

Normally, finishing 13th is a decent day, but for Brian Hensler, he was pleased on how the car ran. "I honestly don't care about finishing 13th. The car was excellent when in the top 5, and we got a lot of fresh air out in front, but the strategy killed us, I thought we would easily pass the majority of the front runners that were on the different strategy, but the car wasn't that strong in the pack, but I finally proved the doubters wrong." Hensler tied with Johnathon Ringer for leading the most laps, however due to Ringer finishing 34th, Hensler was credited as the lap leader.

R&R finishes with both cars in top 10 yet again
Both Tim Averell and Nick Dawson came away from the Verizon 200 with top 10s, marking the second time in 4 races this has occurred. "It really came down to the strategy; we are solidly in the top 30 so we wanted to try and impress our sponsors as the season winds down," Averell remarked after the race.