KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It was a day of contrasts for Nick Sanchez at Kansas Speedway.
First, the good stuff: Sanchez wheeled his No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet to a very respectable eighth-place finish after starting 13th. The result was his first non-drafting oval top 10 since Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, a stretch of some 15 races.
“Yeah, I mean, honestly, I’m a little disappointed with the day,” said Sanchez post-race. “In qualifying we had a vibration, and stage one, it was horrible. I guess something was wrong with the left front, and we kind of adjusted the race car for stage two based off of that. And you know, obviously we weren’t fighting that anymore in stage two, so then it really wasn’t until stage three where we got adjustments that were good in the race car.
“So yeah, I mean we fought. I fought, tried to do all I could. It’s really fast in the long run, putting it on the fence, but obviously just kind of ran out of time there. And no stage points today, so that’s not really that good.”
Heading into the ROVAL and the final race of the first round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, Sanchez sits ninth in points, one place to the wrong side of the cut line but with just a six-point deficit.
“It’s not horrible, so, yeah, I mean, definitely still to play for,” Sanchez said. “Yeah, we’re still in the game, very much so.”
Given his prowess on road courses this year — fifth on the streets of Chicago, fourth place at Sonoma Raceway and a solid third-place podium finish at Portland International Raceway — Sanchez has reason for optimism he can survive and advance to the next round of the playoffs in just his first full NASCAR Xfinity Series season despite the inevitable chaos the ROVAL tends to produce.
On the negative side of the racing ledger was the incident on lap 157 with Justin Bonsignore that brought out the caution and ended the day for the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“I just misjudged it and it kind of got a little tight and really wasn’t honestly expecting him to get a bigger run,” said Sanchez. “So yeah, it’s just 100% my fault, on me. I hate it for his team, his organization, and I heard he hit a ton. So yeah, my apologies.”
Bonsignore was conciliatory in his post-race remarks.
“I don’t know if Nick got free underneath me and corrected up into me, or if he just misjudged the side draft, but (he) obviously turned us around there and along for a ride after that,” Bonsignore said. “Unfortunate, but I’ve made my fair share of mistakes this year, so it’s just part of racing even though it sucks.”
Looking ahead to next week, Sanchez’s outlook is positive.
“Well, the stats are in our favor. We have just got to go score stage points and have a good solid day. We have the speed, the pressure’s on and we just got to go get it.”
Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.