Tinkle Family Racing, with driver Zachary Tinkle, have learned that racing is a team sport and that has shown a lot during the course of the 2019 season, and shown again in Saturday night’s McGunegill Engine Performance Late Model series event at Anderson Speedway.
Zachary’s crew chief Danny Trent and crew had given Zachary a fast race car for Saturday night’s event as he went out and set Fast Time during that series qualifying, a great debut for his cars Pug Bella paint scheme reveal. From there he would line up for the 10 lap heat race. A pile up happened in front of him at the start of the heat race, giving Zachary nowhere to go and he could not avoid getting involved and received some damage to the nose. Zachary went ahead and raced the heat race getting a third-place finish and earning more precious Championship points.
After the heat race Danny and crew went to work and made the necessary repairs for Zachary to be able to start the 35 lap feature. Zachary had faith in his crew chief and team and was ready to go out and race the feature with a goal of getting a win and building on his Championship points lead.
Tom Miller grabbed the early lead at the start of the race with J.P. Crabtree glued to his back bumper. A slight hiccup in Zachary’s plans happened on lap 16, when he looped his car around after being shoved in the rear, bringing out the yellow flag, but no damage was done to his car. Zachary restarted at the tail of the field and quickly worked his way back to the front to challenge for the lead. Zachary made a pass for the lead on lap 19 around Jaren Crabtree. Zachary had to survive two additional restarts to get the victory, his second with the McGunegill Engine Performance Late Model series in 2019 and his third overall in late model competition.
Zachary kept his streak of top five finishes going, and gained a ton of Championship points, especially with second in points Jeff Marcum setting out the event. Zachary looks to continue to chase his first Late Model Championship as the McGunegill Engine Performance series season starts to wind down
“We went to Anderson Speedway hoping to take the checkered flag in the McGunegill Engine Performance series and we did it!” remarked Zachary. “I couldn’t avoid a small pile up at the start of the heat that caused some damage to the nose. My guys jumped in and worked hard to get it straightened out for the feature. I can’t thank them enough for their dedication or the fans enough for coming out to the track! What a great debut for the Pug Bella paint scheme!”