Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Self Earns Third-Straight West Win

Michael Self swept the K&N Pro Series West's Midwest swing.
Wesley Hitt/Getty Images for NASCAR
LEBANON, Mo. – It had been 36 years since a NASCAR K&N Pro Series West driver swept a pair of races in the same weekend, but Michael Self is all about ending droughts these days.

Two days after he became the first West driver to take the checkered flag in the seven-year history of NASCAR K&N Pro Series East-West combination races at Iowa Speedway, Self made it two-for-two on the weekend with a victory in the Toyota/G-Oil 150 at Lebanon I-44 Speedway.

With the Lebanon win, the 22-year-old from Park City, Utah became the first West driver to earn two wins in one weekend since Harry Jefferson was victorious on June 25 and June 26, 1977.

Self is also the first driver to win three races in a row since Greg Pursley in 2011. His current streak began at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway on May 25.

His three-straight wins were earned on three distinct types of tracks – road course (Brainerd), speedway ( Iowa) and short track (Lebanon).

“Three in a row, I honestly never thought back a year ago that this would be possible,” Self said. “Getting this one on the short track just means so much because we’ve been trying and trying.”

Following Self across the line were Daryl Hall, Dylan Lupton, Derek Thorn and Dylan Hutchison.

The series’ inaugural visit to the .375-mile high banks in Lebanon looked to be in the hands of either one of the Gene Price Motorsports entries of polesitter Cameron Hayley or Pursley, who swapped the lead six times through the first 147 laps of the race. But when Self got the No. 21 Golden Gate Meat/iON Chevrolet under them in Turn 4 to make it three-wide on Lap 148, Hayley and Pursley skidded up the track and Self powered to the lead.

The caution immediately came out with the Hayley-Pursley spin, and on the green-white-checkered finish, Self drove away from the field for his sixth career NASCAR K&N Pro Series West triumph.

“We had a chance there on the bottom,” Self said. “They were fighting each other pretty hard, so I figured I’d get in there and play and see if we could stick it to both of them there.”

With the victory, Self took a one-point lead in the season standings after five races over Derek Thorn. Hayley is eight behind Self with Pursley 11 back.

For Harr, it was one of the more memorable days in his racing career. He competed in the postponed NASCAR Nationwide Series race Sunday morning at Iowa, then took a quick flight down to Lebanon. After no practice, two laps of qualifying and starting at the rear of the field, the second-place finish was the best in 109 starts in his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West career.

“We got down here and my crew was just wonderful,” Harr said. “We had about an hour to get the car together, we set it up going through tech.

“We just kept wheeling. We made some adjustments in the break and I think we had a car that, if we had done a little bit more, we could be sitting where Michael [Self] is right now. But I’ll take it. After 10 years, I’ll take a second place.”

Lupton in third and Hutchison in fifth also recorded the best finishes of their young careers.

The Toyota/G-Oil 150 is scheduled to air on SPEED on Thursday, June 20, at 3 p.m. ET.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West return to action with the Carneros 200 on June 22 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.

By Jason Cunningham, NASCAR

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