By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
If you saw a car with Kyle Busch’s number reversed (Nos. 81 instead of 18) in Saturday’s My Bariatric Solutions 300, then you noticed the newest team in the Xfinity Series, XCI Racing with driver Jeffrey Earnhardt.
The No. 81 Toyota made it first start in the 300-miler at Texas Motor Speedway, qualifying 14th and finishing eighth with Earnhardt behind the wheel.
In their first race together as a team, 29-year-old Earnhardt was pleased with the teamwork and execution throughout the weekend at Texas.
“I mean, a heck of a job by these guys,” Earnhardt told Kickin’ The Tires. “They busted their butts just to get this car here. And then to come out with a top 10, it’s relaly exciting for all these guys.
“We were just trying to find that happy medium. We got too free on the last restart. We could have gotten a couple more spots if we were tighter.”
Suffering a pit road penalty on the race’s final pit stop, Earnhardt still managed to climb back into the top 10 to finish eighth. And with that result, Earnhardt knows it can grow from here.
“We’re going to keep making the program better,” he said. “Shoot, this is the first race working with all these guys. Coming in, knocking a little rust off after sitting out a few months, I guess it wasn’t too bad of a run.”
Indeed, not only was Saturday the team’s first start, but it was Earnhardt’s first start since Atlanta in February. Despite the “rust” and
“The first time working with these guys, I could not have asked for any more,” he said “There were a few growing pains. I felt we didn’t have that great of a racecar. I was scratching my head, stressing about it.
“We overcame a lot of things today, a lot of mishaps on pit road that weren’t worth a crap. That’s racing, we overcome it.”
Racing next at Talladega, Earnhardt’s next 1.5-miler is Charlotte in May. For him, it’s all about staying fresh behind the wheel.
“Any time you can come out and have a solid run — just keep notes fresh in your head,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you write it down, it’s a lot better when it’s all fresh. It is a bit of a challenge but they fill me with a lot of information, making it easier for me to remember those things when we come back.”