After a sixth-place finish at Anderson Speedway on June 12th, Zachary Tinkle and his team were looking forward to continuing that good run with another good run at the Dayton 100 JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance event at Kil-Kare Raceway this past Sunday.
On June 23rd while testing at Kil-Kare Raceway in preparation for the June 27th running of the Dayton 100, Zachary and his team unveiled the new Gary Estes Throwback Paint Scheme on Zachary’s car in honor of his Crew Chief Gary Estes and his car when he won the Dayton 100 in 2004. Gary was surprised by the unveiling and very appreciative of the tribute to one of his biggest wins in his stock car racing career.
With this event being a rare one day show with the series, practice time was at a premium for this event with 19 other tough competitors there, many with lots of laps at the very tricky Kil-Kare Raceway. Zachary got in as many laps as he could in the two 30-minute practice sessions and was pretty happy with the car and the efforts of his Crew Chief Gary Estes and the Stagger Pro Motorsports team.
Zachary and the team then prepared to qualify on a hot a slick racetrack, with temps in the 90’s. Zachary would qualify in 13th position for the 100-lap event.
The Dayton 100 was the first feature event of the day after out of car driver intros in front of a great crowd that turned out to watch the event, one of only two racing events in 2021 on the oval track at Kil-Kare Raceway.
Zachary started out getting laps in, but the car just was not to his liking. Zachary took his car to pit road on almost every caution so the crew could make adjustments and try and make the car better. Zachary did a great job avoiding catastrophe on one of the cautions, spinning his car out in order to avoid another car stopped on the track that was involved in bringing out the caution.
Even with the adjustments Zachary still struggled in gaining positions during the event and would finish in 13th place, but with a car that was in one piece. Zachary is firmly in position to be in the series 2021 Chase for the Championship with only two regular season events left at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and Birch Run Speedway prior to the 2021 Chase for the Championship beginning at Berlin Raceway on August 21st.
The highlight of the day at Kil-Kare for Zachary was getting to meet and race against former NASCAR Cup Series Champion Bobby Labonte, who was racing in the event for the Platinum Motorsports Team out of Dayton, Ohio. Labonte had raced the night prior at the famed Eldora Speedway in the SRX event. He will be racing in the entire SRX six race schedule in 2021. Labonte would go on to finish in second in the Dayton 100 to winner Kyle Jones.
“My performance at Kil-Kare was not what I was hoping for,” remarked Zachary. “I let myself and my team down. I have got a lot of thinking to do. Thank you to all the fans that came out to the race”.
About Zachary Tinkle:
Zachary Tinkle was the 2019 Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman Champion and 2019 Anderson Speedway McGunegill Engines Late Model Series Champion and Rookie of the Year. He also won the 2019 Vore’s Welding CRA Late Model Sportsman Triple Crown Championship. In his 2018 rookie season in the same series, Tinkle was named PGG Sportsman of the Year and voted Most Popular Driver; finishing 5th in the championship. In 2020, Tinkle competed full-time in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Presented by Chevrolet Performance, finishing seventh in the series Chase for the Championship.