By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Through wrecks, fuel mileage and an overtime finish, RSS Racing, as a three-car team, survived to the end.
Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 from Talladega Superspeedway, through thick and thin, became the best race for RSS Racing, finishing all three cars in the top 15 for the first time in their history.
Leading the trio was team veteran Ryan Sieg, who “lucked out” when race leader Justin Allgaier ran out of fuel with four laps to go, advancing the No. 39 to the lead lap.
From there, Sieg paired with plate ace teammate Jeff Green in the final two laps to cross the finish line sixth, his first top 10 of the 2018 XFINITY Series season.
With Green in 13th and JJ Yeley 11th, it was one happy day for RSS Racing in Talladega.
“It’s huge for our team, we were all in the top 15,” Sieg told Kickin’ The Tires. “I had a good shot at the end, luck fell our way with the No. 7 running out of gas and we could get our lap back. It was great for the whole team.”
Riding the third lane with Green on the final restart, Sieg was happy to have experience to work with in a pack of three-wide racing.
“He is a great plate racer,” he said. “I was following him most of the day and we made a run middle of the race because it looked like it was going to go single [file]. I’m glad to have him on our team.”
Green, 55, has run the full season thus far for the team and grabbed his second top-15 finish of the year (finishing 11th at Daytona.) With his time behind the wheel, the 2000 series champion knew it was tough to predict going into the final lap.
“It’s a toss-up on what lane to get in,” Green told Kickin’ The Tires. “I thought the outside would go but it stalled out on the white-flag lap. They were three-wide and you’re riding it out basically trying not to do the wrong thing and cause a wreck.”
Along with leading a lap, Sieg jumps to 15th in driver points and hopes to enter the 12-driver playoffs by September.
“We struggled most of last year. We’ve kind of gotten better this year,” he said. “We’ve been slowly making gains and today was a big gain finishing sixth. You just have to keep gaining.”