Surprise! Jalopnik favorite Andy Lally is making his debut in the Anderson’s Maple Syrup No. 90 Camaro early, but didn’t know for sure that he was going to do the NASCAR Xfinity Series race until the last minute. He’s vastly under-resourced but managed to finish fourteenth in practice anyway.
At first, he only managed to get two crew men, a spotter and two sets of tires for the entire weekend at Mid-Ohio—which means that he only has one set of tires left to race on.
Because of the lack of crew members, Lally originally said he’d have to make pit stops in three laps. The first stop would be for fuel. On the next lap, he’d come in for left side tires. On the third lap, he’d come in for right side tires.
Fans offered to step in as crew, but NASCAR requires a license to go over the wall. Fortunately, crew members from the Richard Childress Racing team offered to help out to give Lally full pit stops—a mere two hours before the race! Lally has to pit after the RCR team does, but that means that three-lap pit stops will no longer necessary.
Lally still needs to bring his A-game to preserving that one remaining set of tires, but with his extensive road course experience and the Jalopnik/Puffalump bump, I have faith in his ability to do just that.
Lally’s hoping for rain to surprise a bunch of mostly-oval drivers who usually only run in the dry, or for yellows to coincide with pit stops.
Lally qualified 22nd for the start of today’s Xfinity race. Hopefully he can pick his way up through the field a bit.
Photo credits: Getty Images (Lally and Wallace), me (Lally and Puffalump)
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.