The Morgan Hill native entered Race 7 of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series in
”
survival mode
”
Saturday following an unfortunate past three feature events at Toyota Speedway
Devon Ostheimer was happy just to finish a race even with a few minor scuffs.
The Morgan Hill native entered Race 7 of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series in “survival mode” Saturday following an unfortunate past three feature events at Toyota Speedway. On May 21, a faulty tire forced Ostheimer, then in fourth place, to pit early and cost him three laps; he finished 13th. On May 14, racing with a car that was miscalibrated, Ostheimer started in seventh but grazed the wall midway through and placed 15th. On April 30, he finished eighth but likely would have placed higher if not for a Lap 10 spinout, dropping him from eighth to 19th.
That, after three consecutive top-six efforts and a first podium finish April 16, was enough to shake the 17-year-old rookie’s confidence.
“We’ve had a lot of bad luck lately, so (my confidence is) a little low right now,” he said Tuesday. “That’s why it’s so important to finish races, so you can keep getting better and better.”
Ostheimer was rightfully optimistic Saturday after he led for five of the first seven laps and finished strong in fourth place.
Ostheimer, who climbed to third in the Auto Club Late Models point standings, overcame another slight misadjustment, plus a brush-up that knocked him out of the lead for good.
“I was fine with that,” the Sobrato High School junior said. “It feels really good to get a four and know we’ll get better next week because we finished. That was the goal.”
The previous three weekends in Irwindale hadn’t been all gloom and doom for Ostheimer. He steadily improved in qualifying to the point where Ostheimer is becoming a mainstay for coveted top-six starts. He qualified 10th for the April 30 race, seventh for May 14 and fifth for May 21.
“We’re going to get faster and faster these next few races,” he said. “We’ve been struggling getting everything together. Now we can make adjustments and get the car faster.”
Ostheimer started fifth again Saturday and climbed into first near the start of Lap 3. The collision occurred on Lap 8, with the second-place car driving into the left-rear quarter panel of Ostheimer’s No. 57 High Point Racing car, forcing Ostheimer to pull up to avoid hitting the wall. Driving wounded, Ostheimer fell to third and eventually fourth on Lap 20. He edged fifth place Chris Johnson and sixth place Nik Romano by less than a second on the final lap.
“I was feeling a lot more comfortable after that,” Ostheimer said. “I just need to keep driving, doing better off the corners and keep finishing and we’ll be back to where we were after those first two races.”
