Analyzing The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will make the short trip down to South Carolina’s Greenville Pickens Speedway on Saturday for the Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150, the first of two events to be held at the half-mile oval this season. Below is a look at the performance of the series and selected drivers at Greenville, as well as some other statistical trends.
Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 Race Setup:
• Spencer Davis heads into Greenville with a one point lead over Tyler Dippel in the standings, 85-84.
• Of the 22 cars schedule to compete in Saturday’s Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150, only eight drivers have previous series starts at the historic South Carolina track – Dillon Bassett, Ronnie Bassett Jr., Kyle Benjamin, Collin Cabre, Christian Celaya, Kaz Grala, Justin Haley and John Holleman IV.
At Greenville Pickens Speedway:
History
• Opened on July 4, 1946 as a dirt track. The surface was converted to asphalt in April 1970.
• Held 29 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races from 1951-71, including the first flag-to-flag televised event.
• David Pearson (1959) and Ralph Earnhardt (1965, 66) are among the famed drivers that have won championships at the track.
• Junior Miller won a pair of NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour races at Greenville in the 2006-07 seasons.
Notebook
• This is the series’ 15th visit to Greenville Pickens Speedway.
• The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 will air on NBCSN on Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
• The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East held its inaugural race at Greenville on June 6, 2006 and has returned every year since. The track returns to hosting two events after only holding one race last year.
• William Byron won the series’ sole visit to Greenville last year.
• Darrell Wallace Jr. is the only driver in series history to win two races at Greenville (2010, 12).
• In the first 14 K&N East events, there have been four drivers that have won from the pole: Joey Logano (2007), Brett Moffitt (2011), Dylan Kwasniewski (2013) and Ben Rhodes (2014).
• Logano, Austin Dillon (2008), Brandon Gdovic (2013), Wallace (2010), Rhodes (2014) and Byron (2015) all earned their first career K&N East win at Greenville.
• The most cautions for a K&N East race at the half-mile oval is 13 on two occasions (2006, 10) while the fewest is one in the September 2013 race. The most caution laps (79) came in the inaugural 2006 race, while the fewest (8) was in September 2013.
• In 14 races, the lead has changed an average of 3.40 with a high of eight changes in 2009.
• The average starting position for the winner is 3.07, while the pole sitter has an average finish of 5.57.
Greenville Data
Race: #3 of 14 overall
Track Layout: .5-mile asphalt oval
Race Length: 150 laps (75 miles)
Banking/Corners: Five degrees
Qualifying/Race Data
2015 Race Winner: William Byron
2015 Pole Sitter: Daniel Hemric
1-Lap Qualifying Record: Brett Moffitt, Toyota, 20.534 seconds, 87.659 mph, April 2, 2011
150-Lap Race Record: Brandon Gdovic, Toyota, 1 hour 2 minutes 27 seconds, 72.058 mph, April 6, 2013
Leaders at Greenville:
Wins
Darrell Wallace Jr. … 2
William Byron … 1
Sean Caisse … 1
Austin Dillon … 1
Brandon Gdovic … 1
Austin Hill … 1
Brian Ickler … 1
Corey LaJoie … 1
Joey Logano … 1
Dylan Kwasniewski … 1
Brett Moffitt … 1
Sergio Pena … 1
Ben Rhodes … 1
Poles
Brett Moffitt … 3
Ben Rhodes … 2
Daniel Hemric … 1
Dylan Kwasniewski … 1
Corey LaJoie … 1
Joey Logano … 1
Mike Olsen … 1
Peyton Sellers … 1
Cole Whitt … 1
Field set per rule book … 2
Laps Completed
Eddie MacDonald … 1,636
Ryan Gifford … 1,317
Brett Moffitt … 1,163
Laps Led
Brett Moffitt … 356
Darrell Wallace Jr. … 171
Brian Ickler … 167
William Byron … 152
Selected Driver Highlights:
Ronnie Bassett Jr. (No. 04 Bassett Gutters Ford)
• Heads into Greenville (S.C.) Pickens Speedway ranked fourth in the standings with one top five and two top 10s.
• In four starts at Greenville, he has an average start of 9.5 and an average finish of 13.2
• Has completed 453 of 582 laps during his four starts.
• Earned his best series career finish, a runner-up, at Greenville in 2014.
Kyle Benjamin (No. 40 FEVR Chevrolet)
• Is ranked third in the series standings with one top-five and two top-10 finishes.
• Finished 12th after starting 12th in his series debut at Greenville last season.
• At the two previous half-mile ovals this season, New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway and Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway, he finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
• Is a member of the 2015-16 NASCAR Next class.
Harrison Burton (No. 12 DEX Imaging/Konica Minolta Toyota)
• Heads into Greenville ranked eighth in the K&N Pro Series East standings with one top-10 finish.
• This will be his first series start Greenville.
• In his first two series starts he’s finished 13th (New Smyrna) and seventh (Mobile).
• Became the youngest starter in NASCAR K&N Pro Series West history at 15 years, eight days at All American Speedway in Roseville, California.
Spencer Davis (No. 41 Ruud.com Chevrolet)
• Sits atop of the K&N East standings headed into Greenville after back-to-back runner-up finishes.
• This will be his first series start at the historic South Carolina oval.
• Has finished sixth or better in each of his six K&N East starts.
Tyler Dippel (No. 38 East West Marine/TyCar Chevrolet)
• Is runner-up in the series standings with one win and two top-10 finishes.
• Earned his first K&N East victory at Mobile on March 13.
• Finished eighth in his series debut at New Smyrna.
• This will be his first series start at Greenville.
Noah Gragson (No. 55 AlertID/Speed Vegas/Colliers International Ford)
• Is sixth in the series standings headed into Greenville with one top five.
• Finished eighth at New Smyrna and 12th at Mobile.
• This will be his debut at the South Carolina half-mile.
Kaz Grala (No. 3 NETTTS Toyota)
• Heads into Greenville ranked seventh in the standings with one top-five.
• In three starts at Greenville he has an average start of 6.3 and an average finish of 8.0.
• Has completed all 442 laps in his three starts and has led a total of 15 laps at the historic track.
• Has finished seventh (2014), ninth (2014) and sixth (2015) at Greenville.
Justin Haley (No. 5 Braun Auto Chevrolet)
• Is ranked fifth in the K&N East standings headed to South Carolina with one top five and two top 10s.
• Finished 18th after starting third in his Greenville debut last season.
• This season he finished fifth at New Smyrna and ninth at Mobile.
Austin Theriault (No. 1 Don Valley Toyota)
• Heads into Greenville ranked ninth in the series standings with one top five.
• This will be his first series start at the South Carolina half-mile oval.
• In his two starts this season, he’s finished 24th (New Smyrna) and fourth (Mobile).
Dominique Van Wieringen (No. 30 Durobyte Ford)
• Is ranked 10th in the K&N East standings with one top 10.
• In her two starts this season, she’s finished 10th in her series debut New Smyrna and 20th at Mobile.
• This will be her first series start at Greenville.
Other Driver Notes:
• Collin Cabre is looking to bounce back after his 22nd place finish at Mobile. The Driver for Diversity (D4D) driver finished 15th at Greenville last year.
Up To Speed:
• The 2016 season is the 30th for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
• The 2016 schedule features 14 races at 13 different tracks across the United States.
• Third generation driver, Todd Gilliland, earned his first NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victory in his series debut at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.
• Tyler Dippel collected his first series career win at Mobile (Ala.) International Speedway.
