By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Spencer Gallagher’s day started and finished better than ever before in the XFINITY Series.
Not only did he score his best career starting spot, qualifying fourth for the season-opening PowerShares QQQ 300, but he finished it with a career-best finishing spot of sixth. It came after one of the wildest races in series history that saw five Overtime restarts and the closest finish in NASCAR history.
“We were hauling ass from the drop of the green flag,” Gallagher said. “I got to learn a lot watching the masters of the craft go around there and school my ass a few times. We were able to stay with a good crowd.”
Running top 10 most of the day, Gallagher and his GMS Racing team were running third on the third attempt at an Overtime finish when he spun on the backstretch after a tap from Ross Chastain.
Hitting the inside wall with the right-front corner, Gallagher was shocked of the car’s performance from then on.
“Surprisingly, for not having half the splitter, [it drove] pretty darn good,” he said. “I really thought we were in trouble after the hit because I could hear it dragging and shooting sparks under the hood. Bring home the trophy or burn it down, that’s what I did. Surprisingly, she held on quite well.”
The whole weekend was memorable for Gallagher, who saw Johnny Sauter score his third Daytona Camping World Truck Series win on Friday night. Gallagher, who is a team representative for GMS, said the weekend was among his favorite of his NASCAR career.
“I was hoping to keep GMS batting a thousand this weekend,” he said. “To hear we’ve won four of the last five Truck plate races is an incredible honor. Johnny Sauter being the winningst driver in Daytona in a truck is a huge honor to have that happen in your house. I love being attached to something like that. That was the culmincation of an offseason’s hard work.”
Following a full-time XFINITY season in 2017 that had only one top-10 finish, grabbing one off the start will be a huge momentum boost for the organization.
“This is a huge milestone for GMS, a big one for me as a driver,” he said. “That’s the best I’ve felt in an XFINITY car at a plate track. We have a car we can take home and work on
“It definitely puts us on the right foot forward. This is a great way to start the year, I feel we had a car that couldve won. It’s a great day for us and one I’ll keep in my memory bank for a good while. We showed the rest of the field we are here to play. Onto to Atlanta, onto to kicking some more ass.”