Second K&N West Victory Goes Lupton’s Way At Kern

BAKERSFIELD, CA – Dylan Lupton scored his second career NASCAR K&N Pro Series West win Saturday night in a wild finish at Kern County Raceway Park.

The 20-year-old Wilton, CA driver battled championship points leader Greg Pursley on a green-white-checkered finish that pushed the Bakersfield 150 presented by GPS to 155 laps.

Pursley, who had won the Coors Light Pole Award earlier in the day, was dominant for most of the event. He took the lead from NASCAR K&N Pro Series East regular Jesse Little on lap 108 and looked poised to claim his third consecutive victory at Kern County until the final caution and subsequent restart changed the course of the race.

Lupton, on the other hand, qualified ninth for the event and spent the first half of the race trying to work his way up the field. After making some adjustments at the halfway point, Lupton began moving up the field, eventually slotting behind Pursley for the second spot towards the closing laps of the event.

“My crew chief made an absolutely great adjustment to the car,” said Lupton about the changes his No. 9 Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Eibach Ford team made at the halfway point. “It allowed me to drive a little bit lower on the track and I was able to start picking off drivers one-by-one.”

As the Bakersfield 150 presented by GPS got into its final laps, Lupton had cut Pursley’s lead from nearly two seconds to about a half-second. With three laps left, Lupton was putting pressure on the points leader, setting up a tense white flag lap, but then, the caution came on Lap 148, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

On the restart, Pursley was black flagged for a restart violation — he took off before the restart point. That enabled Luptotn’s No. 9 Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Eibach Ford to cruise to Victory Lane.

“Coming to that last restart, there’s a restart point and it looked like Pursley jumped it by about a car-and-a-half or two car lengths early,” commented Lupton. “That gave us the win right there, but, I think if we would have battled, we could have also contended for the win. We had a great car. This team works so hard and they deserve this win more than anybody.”

The penalty dropped Pursley to ninth.

Brandon McReynolds matched his career best finish with a second-consecutive runner-up finish.

“It was a good, solid run by our NAPA/Toyota guys,” said McReynolds. “We lost a little track position about mid-way through, but we made it better and just came home a little short.”

Little, fourth in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship points standings, finished third in just his third career K&N Pro Series West start.

“I had a lot of fun coming out here and running with these West guys,” said Little. “They’re just as competitive as any drivers I’ve been up against.”

Little took the lead from Pursley on lap 81, but ceded it back to Pursley after a restart on lap 107.

“I felt like I just pushed too hard after I took the lead from Greg,” said Little. “You could tell that he’s the veteran and just saved his stuff more. But our goal was to come out here and be competitive and I felt we accomplished that.”

Lupton’s rookie teammate James Bickford was fourth and Thomas Martin fifth. Taylor Cuzick, Justin Funkhouser, rookie Jairo Avila, Pursley and David Mayhew rounded out the top 10.

For Lupton, the victory came just two weeks after a disappointing third-place finish at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, WA. The young driver took the white flag as the race leader, but was forced to cede position to Mayhew and McReynolds coming out of turn 4, settling for a third-place finish.

“That was a frustrating week,” said Lupton about his loss at Evergreen. “We lost it coming out of (Turn) 4, so this is a little bit of redemption here. These Sunrise Ford crew guys deserve this. After that loss, they were all frustrated and disappointed. I messed up right there, but coming here and getting the win for them is good. We’ll move on to Miller Motorsports Park now and ty to win us a championship.”

Pursley saw his 25-point lead reduced to a 15-tally advantage over Lupton in the championship standings. McReynolds is 11 points back of Lupton, while Mayhew and Bickford round out the top five.

Lupton, a member of the NASCAR Next class, earned his first win at Evegreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington, last August en route to Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. McReynolds and Little are also members of the NASCAR Next program, an industry initiative designed to spotlight the sport’s rising stars. Little, the 2013 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Sunoco Rookie of the Year, was looking to pick up a win in the series his father, Chad, won a championship in nearly 27 years ago in 1987.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West will next race in the Utah Grand Prix on Saturday, Sept. 13 at Miller Motorsports Park at Tooele, Utah.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West
Kern County Raceway Park – Bakersfield, CA
Bakersfield 150 – Aug. 30, 2014

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Points	B/Points	Status
1	9	9	Dylan Lupton	Sunrise Ford/Lucas Oil/Eibach Ford	155	47	4	Running
2	2	16	Brandon McReynolds	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	155	42		Running
3	4	97	Jesse Little	NASCAR Technical Institute Chevrolet	155	42	1	Running
4	6	6	James Bickford *	Sunrise Ford/Eibach Sprint/Lucas Oil/Interstate Pl	155	40		Running
5	10	5	Thomas Martin	MedActive Oral Relief/RacersDrive Chevrolet	155	39		Running
6	7	42	Taylor Cuzick	Freightliner of Arizona Ford	155	38		Running
7	11	11	Justin Funkhouser	MedActive Oral Care for Dry Mouth/ Racers Drive	155	37		Running
8	13	36	Jairo Avila *	Wrap World Toyota	155	36		Running
9	1	26	Greg Pursley	GPM/Star Nursery/ Real Water Ford	155	37	2	Running
10	3	17	David Mayhew	MMI Services/Ron’s Rear Ends Chevrolet	154	34		Running
11	14	38	Zack Huffman *	Philpott Race Cars Chevrolet	154	33		Running
12	16	30	John Wood	Wahl Traction Toyota	152	32		Running
13	17	15	Jack Sellers	MedActive Oral Relief/RacersDrive Chevrolet	150	31		Running
14	5	83	Kelly Admiraal *	Swan Rentals Chevrolet	98	30		Accident
15	15	84	Rich DeLong III *	Country Girl Saloon/Ron’s Rear Ends Chevrolet	93	29		Running
16	18	14	Rich DeLong Jr. *	Country Girl Saloon Toyota	69	28		Engine
17	8	88	Jeremy Doss *	I5 Tire Factory Ford	41	27		Accident
18	12	51	Carlos Vieira	51 FIFTY Energy Drink Chevrolet	31	26		Accident

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RACE STATISTICS

Fastest Qualifier: Greg Pursley      Time: 18.255 Seconds      Speed: 98.603 mph

Time of Race: 1 hrs., 18 mins, 56 secs     Average Speed: 58.910 mph     Margin of Victory:.269 Seconds

Caution Flags: Laps 3-6; 19-22; 32-37; 43-48; 57-59; 70-71; 99-106; 148-152.  8 for 38 laps.

Lap Leaders: Greg Pursley 1-81, Jesse Little 82-107, Greg Pursley 108-154, Dylan Lupton 155.

Total Laps Led: Greg Pursley 128, Jesse Little 26, Dylan Lupton 1.  3 changes involving 3 drivers.

Top 10 Driver Points:Greg Pursley 459, Dylan Lupton 444, Brandon McReynolds 433, David Mayhew 416, James Bickford * 388, Thomas Martin 374, John Wood 332, Rich DeLong III * 314, Jack Sellers 302, Anthony Giannone 288

Next Race: 9/13/14

* Denotes Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender