Eric Holmes Wins NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Race at Evergreen Speedway in Washington
- Jul 31, 2012
"I didn't know about the 50-win thing until about a month ago and I wanted to be the one to get it. But with the bad luck we had been having I wasn't sure we need the extra pressure," he said. "I'm really happy for the whole team now that we got it. Now it's time to move on and get some more wins down the stretch."
It was also the 17th career West Series win of Holmes' career. He is tied with two-time West Series champion Bill Sedgwick for eighth most in West Series history. Holmes, a three-time West Series champion in his own right, won his first race of 2012. He won two K&N Pro Series West races last year, the most recent coming at All American Speedway in Roseville, California, on Oct. 15. "We've had a lot of bad luck this year but I think we got that changed tonight by getting the No. 20 NAPA Toyota back into Victory Lane,” Holmes said after the race on Saturday night. "The NAPA Toyota was really consistent all night long. The No. 21 car (Michael Self) gave me a great run for the fans and it was a lot of fun. Thank you Evergreen Speedway for having us." Holmes took the lead in the Toyota/NAPA Auto Parts 150 on lap 131 and led the last 19 laps of the race to take the checkered flag. Michael Self was second, followed by Derek Thorn in third. Greg Pursley won the pole and led the first 37 laps of the race. Holmes passed Pursley for the lead on lap 38 and held it for the next 44 laps. Self used lapped traffic to take the lead on lap 83 and was out front for 48 laps before Holmes took back the lead.
Holmes passed Self on lap 131 and stayed out front through a red-flag caution period on lap 140. John Wood crashed in turn 3 and stopped the race as the track crew cleaned up the mess. When the race resumed, Holmes stayed out front and won by 0.475 seconds over Self. Dylan Kwasniewski, the leader in the K&N Pro Series West standings, was seventh. He has a six-point lead over Pursley after nine races. Pursley, the reigning K&N Pro Series West champion, ended up in sixth place. Jonathan Gomez was fourth, followed by David Mayhew in fifth. It was Gomez's third top-five finish of the season and Mayhew's sixth top-five. Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
