TSR, McMahan Look Forward to Final Eastern Swing
INDIANAPOLIS – With the excitement of their final appearance of the season at Eldora Speedway behind them, the competitors of the World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Series are already marching on as they move toward the final few events of the year. For Paul McMahan and the No. 20 Tony Stewart Racing (TSR)/Bass Pro Shops/Eagle team, this week’s four-race schedule is a welcome change to last week’s one race schedule.
First on the docket is Wednesday’s single-day event at the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middleton, N.Y. McMahan will make his first appearance at the 5/8-mile oval this season as on May 19 rain claimed the event. The last A-main feature at the facility was won by Brooke Tatnell on May 29, 2006.
The WoO Sprint Series moves on to Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., for a two-day event Friday and Saturday. In McMahan’s last appearance at the track on July 21, he finished third in the A-main. Donny Schatz won the event.
In 65 WoO starts this season, McMahan has earned two wins, 14 top-five finishes, 35 top-10s and seven quick time awards. He enters this week’s events ranked eighth in the WoO Sprint Series championship standings with 8,525 points.
Pit gates will open at the Orange County Fair Speedway on Wednesday at 2 p.m. EDT. Grandstands will open at 5 p.m., with hot laps set to begin at 6 p.m.
For the Friday and Saturday double feature at Williams Grove Speedway, pit gates will open each day at 4 p.m. EDT. The grandstands will open at 5:15 p.m., with qualifying set to begin at 7:15 p.m. Williams Grove Speedway is a half-mile oval.
Quotes from Paul McMahan:
Williams Grove Speedway is always a tough place to come to, especially with all of the local winged sprint car drivers that compete at the track on a weekly basis. What are some of the key points a team needs to pay attention to at this particular track?
“Williams Grove and the National Open have years and years of history. It’s probably one of the toughest race tracks that we go to, as far as drivers that we race against that run there weekly. We’ve been pretty good there this year and I think we have run in the top-five in three of the five races there. Hopefully we’ll have the car running the way it has there this year and we can get a victory. You have to draw a good number and qualify well, but I don’t know if the number means all that much. We went out last there before and qualified in the top-12. You have to have your motor running good and your car handling well to do good there. You need a little bit of luck, but it’s the luck that you make for yourself.”
There is a Bass Pro Shops retail store located in Harrisburg, Pa. Does that give you and the team a bit more incentive to try to win the event?
“The team from the Harrisburg store is just a great group. We really enjoy coming out to this part of the country to race. Chris O’Hara (Promotions Manager, Bass Pro Shops Harrisburg) and his team really show us a good time. We usually do at least one appearance at the facility each year. This year’s deal was canceled due to rain in July but the guys still came out to the track to support us. We usually run pretty well at Williams Grove and it would be a pretty cool deal to get a win here for them and the Chevy folks that we’ll have at the track with us this weekend.”
-TSR-
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