ROUGEMONT, NC – Pit strategy and a strong car allowed Tyler Matthews to pick up his second consecutive, and career, podium finish in the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour at Orange County Speedway on Sunday.
Matthews, who started 24th, made a pit stop for fuel on lap 23, the race’s first caution, which allowed him to stay out on track after a lap 46 caution – utilizing the same strategy as eventual race winner Josh Berry. From there, Matthews stayed inside the top-10 and raced his way back up to a third place finish in the closing laps of the Old North State Nationals.
“I felt like we had a good car here, I just put us behind the eight ball in qualifying like usual,” Matthews told Short Track Scene after the race. “Crew chief [Lee McCall] put us in good track position there by pitting and taking fuel early and then, when everybody else came down to put fuel in it, we were running up front, so we hund around the top-10 right there and worked on it. I knew we’d be pretty fast.
“We used the right rear up right much,” Matthews continued. “We put tires on it and the thing was a rocket ship. We were coming there at the end, just hot hung up by a couple people racing and probably should have pushed the envelope sooner. We were running the leaders down, just too little too late.”
Matthews had entered the race with high expectations after a runner-up finish at Hickory Motor Speedway a month earlier. After coming home in third on Sunday, it was another run that gives Matthews even more confidence heading into the rest of the season.
“Solid third place finish right here for us after backing up the Hickory run,” Matthews said. “This 41 car is on a rail right now. If we can put the whole thing together, I think we can put it in victory lane.”
Matthews will run most of the upcoming races on the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour schedule, but has already missed a race at Dillon Motor Speedway and is expected to miss the May 22nd race at Caraway Speedway. Because of that, he says his main focus now is on winning races.
Josh Berry won the Old North State Nationals for the second straight year.
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