Top: Deefer, Kash Flop: Glossum, Lester, p much the rest of the field
Tyler Deefer Wins 3rd Career Race, Jates Finishes 2nd In Rebound
It was just one year ago Tyler Deefer was one week removed from his first career win at Livonia Raceway. Now, Deefer has built a name for himself and has established himself as a star, if not a superstar, in the AMP Energy Racing Series.
Deefer started on the pole alongside Alex Jates and those two would finish 1-2. Deefer faded early on, but stayed in the hunt for the entirety. After Shawn Glossum's dominant #9 fell off after a couple of accidents, Deefer and Jates were the only two who really seemed to have anything to contend. Nate Smith took the lead late for a brief 9 laps, but Deefer ended up taking the top spot for good with 11 laps left, securing his third career win.
"Great all around weekend for us," said the smiling Deefer, shortly after getting drenched in Gatorade along with his girlfriend, "We just had everythin' going for us all weekend long. Not one thing went wrong."
A picture perfect weekend rarely ever happens, and Tyler Deefer once again did it. It seems like whenever his #20 ends up in victory lane, it was a very convincing victory. All 3 of his wins it felt like he should have been the winner, and today was no different.
"It's just encouraging for us. We have all worked countless hours trying to perfect this race team and we're at a point where we're close. We want to be contending for championships. We're probably up there now, but we're for sure not satisfied. It'll be interesting to see how we respond at Daytona. I'm not a huge superspeedway guy, so we'll see. It'll be a nice test."
Meanwhile, Alex Jates, fresh off what was a weekend all too familiar for the #1 team, missing an early race and crushing championship hopes, rebounded so well that his team sits 7th in championship standings despite the DNQ. Jates led 33 laps, and ran up front all race long.
"Yeah after last week we would have been fine with a top 20, but to come off the truck as fast as we did was great. Just goes to show you anything can happen and sometimes things like that are for the best. We're a better team because of last weekend. Congrats to Tyler, thought, it's nice to see a Ford winning the Ford 200."
Jates and Deefer are becoming close friends, as reported from the garage area. The two have been spotted outside of racetracks during downtime, grabbing bites to eat or having joint autograph sessions. It was no surprise to see them not only start on the front row together, but to finish 1-2 as well.
Glossum blames self for disappointing Ford 200 finish
In an attempt to repeat as the winner of the Boston AERS event, Shawn Glossum was well on his way to another great Boston performance. His #9 led a race-high 45 laps. However, lap traffic became a problem, the 9 spun Keith Davis' #06 to create the second yellow of the race, and then the 9 was caught up in another wreck while leading, this one taking him out of contention.
"People are probably going to blame the lap traffic but that's just all on me, man." said Glossum, "I should've known not to push the envelope like that ya feel? It was like, lap 60. I had time. Just a shame for this to happen when we were so fast ya know? Hate it for everyone here but we'll move on, put it behind us."
Glossum's JN teammates didn't fare much better, although Jonathon Ringer pulled his #36 home in a quiet 4th place finish. He was very pleased with the performance,
"Yeah, we kinda just were...there. Doesn't matter how you do it, though, and we sure did well t'day. Boring for us, we didn't do much but it's really whatever, we finished 4th. We're all happy."
Cohon apologetic to teammate Juveno
Jimmy Cohon turned teammate Barry Juveno early in the race and Carson Racing immediately had a poor day because of it. Cohon was apologetic post-race, saying he hadn't yet talked to Juveno but knows he'd be upset.
"He's a passionate guy so I'm sure he'll be upset but he'll get over it. It was my fault, but I'm sure he's gonna throw a fit about it. Listen, it's racing, **** happens, I'm sorry I just didn't have much room. I truly am, I would never try to intentionally wreck him or anyone. I hate it for my guys and for his, this team needs a boost and I didn't deliver. So I hope he understands and doesn't start yellin' but I truly am so sorry."
Cortez, Rodin record new best finishes, both get top-10s
Rookies are definitely one of the big stories in the early 2018 campaign, obviously with phenom Caine Dwyer getting most of the headlines. But today it was two different rookies who stole the spotlight. Although they were quiet, and didn't do anything to wow anyone, the two drove clean and respectable all race long, earning respect of veteran drivers while also scoring career best finishes.
Cortez said, "It feels good. I mean, it's special to get my first top ten, and I mean, I'm just enjoying being here. I like how competitive everything is and I like the learning curve. Just being around here is surreal. I owe my guys big time for the stops and everything today. Just all came together and were working towards building something here."
Meanwhile, Rodin, in his very french accent, said, "I'm happy with our result. I was very pleased with it. We had a good race and ended up tenth. I'm very happy and very excited for my first visit to Daytona next race. I'm so excited to visit that great place."
Jesse Pizzajarvi Admin
Posts : 4133 Join date : 2010-09-02
Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 2 - Boston (Ford 200) Fri Mar 09, 2018 4:08 am
Ford 200 post-race:
Juveno not happy with 16th, less happy with teammate
Drama within an organization is not a welcomed sight for any owner in any sport. Adam Carson had to face this dilemma after 17 laps in the 2018 Ford 200 as contact between drivers Jimmy Cohon and Barry Juveno brought out the caution. New acquisitions aren't always guaranteed to be the most compatible and, with both drivers being brand new to the team for the 2018 season, this challenge has emerged early on.
Cohon, piloting the #33 Adidas Toyota, was apologetic over his radio communication and in his post-race interview to his teammate, saying that "it's racing", "[expletive] happens" and "I just didn't have much room." Juveno was irate over the radio initially, but seemed calmer after climbing out of the car; at least compared to his track record. He went over to Cohon after the latter's words to the press, getting awful close in proximity to him, and ultimately chose to leave it to heated words.
"Gotta use your [expletive] head out dere," Juveno said emphatically after the conversation he had with Cohon. "We pros. We ain't paid to [expletive] up like that and trash ya own teammates too. Next time he do that, he ain't gettin' off so easy wit me. That's fo' [expletive] sure. So what we got 16th. We coulda done so much better, but he [expletive] up and we pay da price. I got it through his head [that] he gon' get sumthin if he does it again. Write it in the paper. I ain't care."
While never known for a stellar AERS campaign, Juveno has had a fair share of accidents throughout his career that have mostly not been of his own doing. One can judge it to be Juveno's fault and another can say Cohon's, but his 16th-place finish drops him down a position in the points standings to 26th. Cohon sits back in 40th, struggling to keep ahead of some names that have missed one or both of the first two events on the calendar.
Adam Carson has yet to make any comment regarding the incident and likely will not make any statements to the press about it in the coming days. Juveno is the highest of the drivers on the team in the standings. Now would not be a preferable time to have any distractions hampering any of the drivers' performances on track.
7 Forum Founder, Admin
Posts : 7740 Join date : 2009-05-16 Age : 29
Subject: Re: 2018 AERS Race 2 - Boston (Ford 200) Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:23 am
Spoiler:
Davis Not Happy With Shawn Glossum
Tensions have risen at...Boston? With news about Carson Racing teammates clashing heads, there has been another heated source of action within the garage area after drivers arrived to Daytona. Boston isn’t a track that typically generates this kind of stuff, but here we are.
Keith Davis, running a separate out strategy than most of the field, could not pull off said strategy after a long mid-race green flag run and was quite frustrated with that as is, being slow enough with the others involved in the same strategy to get lapped, well, that is until leader Shawn Glossum came up behind Davis mid-race and spun the 06, causing a sizeable pileup and effectively ending Davis’ day.
Davis, none too happy, said in his post-race that, “Racing like that is not tolerated.” After arriving at Daytona, his sentiment remains the same.
“People are blaming me and I’m reading all these comments at me and I don’t understand.” said the veteran, “The guy is leading and is a great established guy in this league, a potential hall of famer. But what he did last weekend is just inexcusable. I gave enough room, I slowed down enough and next thing I know we’re piling up. It’s embarassing for the league, and it should be embarrassing for Shawn. Respect the hell out of him but that wasn’t right.”
When asked if he had talked to Glossum, Davis said, “Yeah I actually got done talking with him at the weekly Thursday morning optional breakfast we all have. He showed up surprisingly and I confronted him. It was a nice talk but we just had to agree to disagree. I’m not the type to want drama or hold grudges but he knows I have this in the back of my head.”