Wolfpack Racing Report: Steakhouse Elite 200 at Darlington Raceway – May 8th, 2021
Saturday May 8th, 2021
Race 9 of 33: Steakhouse Elite 200
Track Specs: 1.366 mile Oval
Race Winner: Jason Allgaier
Weatherman’s Finish: 32nd
This week brings us to Darlington Raceway, the Lady in Black and the track Too Tough to Tame. Pit Viper Sunglasses was on the car for Darlington’s Throwback weekend. The #47 Pit Viper Chevrolet was decked out in Petty Blue and Sunglow orange reminiscent of the 1981 Daytona winning STP car driven by Richard Petty. After winning the fans choice award for best throwback scheme, the #47 Pit Viper Chevrolet was ready for battle.
Stage One Finish: 23rd
Stage One Finish: 23rdRolling off 26th for the start of the Steakhouse Elite 200, Weatherman stuck to the game plan of just racing the track as this was only his second time at the difficult 1.3-mile oval. His first appearance was cut short 1 year ago when he was caught up in an accident only 5 laps into the race. Weatherman settled in and in dropped back a few spots to get comfortable in the car. After about 10 laps, Weatherman took the #47 Pit Viper Chevrolet to the wall and began picking spots up finishing 23rd for the 1st stage.
Stage Two Finish: 35th
After coming into the service of the MHR crew, Kyle would take the restart in 28th position. Continuing the plan from the first stage, Weatherman took the Pit Viper Sunglasses Chevrolet to the top again “racing the track”. As the stage went on, the tires wore and Weatherman earned his Darlington Stripe, kissing the wall as he turned down to exit turn 4. As the laps ticked off, the #47 “jumped the cushion” and drug the right side down the wall. Weatherman picked up the throttle and carried on only to have a right rear tire going down. Weatherman brought the Pit Viper Chevrolet down to the service of Crew Chief Teddy Brown and the MHR crew. With a front right side tire only, Weatherman was away, but at the end of the pit lane Weatherman radioed back in that the right rear was going down. Brown was assessing the tires as Weatherman reported the 2nd tire failure and jumped to action making an adjustment to avoid any further issues. Unfortunately, the #47 teams’ luck was not changing as there was a miscommunication on the stop causing a tire to get away and cause a pass-through penalty for Weatherman. After the unfortunate series of pitstops and penalty, Weatherman would return to the track in 35th position, 6 laps down.
Final Stage Finish: 32nd
As Weatherman was not on the same lap as anyone, he settled into a conservative pace to finish out the race, while passing others around him. After avoiding several incidents in front of him and keeping the #47 out of the wall the remainder of the race, Weatherman wasn’t able to get any laps back but was able to gain 3 spots to bring home a 32nd place finish.
Kyle Quote: “Darlington is a fun track. I hate that we didn’t get the finish we should have as we had good speed in the car. I can’t wait to come back here in the fall after getting these laps in today. I want to thank all the fans that voted for the Pit Viper Sunglasses scheme to be the Fan’s Choice winner. It is a great-looking car and an honor to drive it. I’m ready to get to Dover”.
