New car pays off in Camping World Series West race

Mike David decided about week before the NASCAR Camping World Series race at Phoenix International Raceway to switch cars. His team put together a Toyota for the Phoenix race after finishing third in a Ford to start the season at All-American Speedway in Roseville last month.
The switch paid off. David won the Phoenix race and took over the lead in the West Series standings.
"We didn't take our best car to Roseville and it bit us," said David, who lives in Modesto. "We didn't run quite as good as we wanted. So, that's when we jumped on this thing and thought it would be our best car."
It was the first time his Lynch Racing team put together a Toyota for a NASCAR race.
"It took lots of hours," David said. "There were a lot of nights we were there until two or three in the morning and a couple of all-night efforts. All my guys are volunteer guys. They come down after work and put in all the hours. I can't thank them enough. It worked out great."
Eric Holmes, the winner of the season opener at All-American Speedway, took the lead early in the race, but ran out of fuel on lap 87. He opted to stay on the track rather than pit during a caution period about 20 laps prior and it cost him.
David said seeing Holmes run out of fuel made him a little uneasy about his team's pit strategy.
"When I saw Eric run out, we were concerned, also," he said. "We started backing it way off and trying to conserve fuel. That's when the 42 car (Jeff Jefferson) caught us."
David pitted during the caution period when Holmes ran out of gas and fell to eighth place. But David worked his way back to the front.
"We knew we had a real good car, especially on long runs," he said. "So, we just had to take our time to get back up there."
Nick Lynch of Burley, Idaho, was second and Jefferson finished third. Holmes finished 23rd.
The next event on the schedule for the NASCAR Camping World Series West is the Allstate Texas Thunder 150 at Thunder Hill Raceway in Kyle, Texas, on April 19.