 | ||||
Kyle Hall Kicks Off New Season With A Successful Eighth-Place Finish
While other drivers spent the racing off-season getting ready to better their results in their race car from the prior season, 16-year-old Legends racer Kyle Hall spent time getting comfortable in his new Late Model Stock Car, preparing for his full-sized racecar debut. Saturday, he put the butterflies to rest at Old Dominion Speedway (VA) by entering his first race in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. When the checkered flag flew in the 100-lap event, Hall finished on the lead lap in eighth-place.
“At the start of the race we were pretty good,” said Hall. “I was nervous. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. We qualified ninth out of 18 cars, and I was about sixth at the first caution. On a restart later in the race I went to go out the outside of a lapped car and he didn’t know I was there or his spotter didn’t tell him I was there. He pushed me up the track so I had to get out of it. I ended up going back to about 11th or 12th. I just got back in my rhythm and picked up the pace, and I came back up to finish eighth.”
The race day started off a little shaky for Hall and the team, as a mistake preparing the car to race almost cost them a chance to start the event.
“In practice we went into the first turn and ended up looping it, scraping the wall. I pulled back into the pits to check the car. We didn’t have any major damage so we went back out there. When that practice session was over we realized we left the radiator cap off, which spilled water all over our tires. Once we corrected that, we went back out and picked up speed.”
With confidence and a will to succeed, Hall was able to shake the early mistakes to bring home a solid finish.
“I am extremely satisfied with our first race,” said Hall. “The only things we were aiming for was to run some laps and gain some respect, and also bring the car back in one piece. We pretty much accomplished all of those things, so we were really happy with that.
“Practicing the car as much as we did helped us understand how the tires were going to react from the start to the end of the race. For the next race, we are going to get a little more advanced in the setup. Maybe change the gear. We are still trying to get used to the car and understand fully how it works, but we are confident after a successful first race.”
