After a few weeks off, Craig Goess headed back to the track for the ARCA RE/MAX Series event at Pocono Raceway (PA), looking for a solid finish. Despite a shock failure during the race, Goess was able to muscle his #81 Greenville Toyota Camry to a ninth-place finish.
Goess headed into the weekend looking to get a solid day of testing in under his belt, but Mother Nature had other plans, forcing Goess to have to use knowledge and the race to shake down the car.
“I would say that, just like other people, it hurt us missing practice on Thursday,” said Goess. “The car was uncomfortable when we got on the track. It was real loose. So trying to get comfortable on the track and to get comfortable with the car in a short period of time was a challenge. We made a bunch of changes before the race.”
Once the green flag dropped, Goess got stronger every lap, and eventually ran lap times comparable with the leaders. Unfortunately a shock issue curtailed his run to the front.
“We went on the track and in the first lap it was much more drivable. Once we got about 20 or so laps on it when the pressures built up, we were running times with the top three cars and were catching the cars in front of us. We made one little air pressure change on the first caution and we went back out and the car felt weird. Something had changed. We spent the rest of the day chasing it. We blew a tire and come to find out after the race the left front shock had failed. It wouldn’t move at all, so that is the reason the car felt so weird. So, considering that, finishing ninth wasn’t so bad. Before that we definitely had a top-five car.”
With Pocono behind, Goess is now turning his attention to this weekend’s upcoming ARCA RE/MAX Series event in Michigan.
“I am definitely looking forward to going up there,” explained Goess. “We have already had some time on the track. We are going to work on the car and hope to improve on the car from the test. Hopefully we can have a successful weekend without anything weird happening.”
The Racing for Wildlife 200 ARCA RE/MAX Series race will take place on Friday, June 12th at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI.
Despite Shock Failure, Craig Goess Finishes Ninth at Pocono
Pocono Post-Race Report
Craig Goess. (51 Sports Photo)
