FORT WORTH, Texas — If you’re looking for Ryan Sieg’s 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series season to be summed up in one race, look no further than Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. It wasn’t pretty. It certainly wasn’t easy. But in the end, Sieg and his team were able to be effective with sheer determination.
After crashing his primary car in practice on Friday, Sieg was relegated to using his race car that was supposed to be on track next weekend at ISM Raceway in Phoenix.
For those keeping score at home, yes Phoenix is a completely different track than Texas. But RSS Racing was hoping to travel from Texas to Phoenix without needing a trip back home to their shop in Georgia.
So, as the primary No. 39 machine spewed oil and radiator fluid in the garage and members of the team took saw-saws to the machine looking to salvage anything they could from the wreckage, Sieg’s crew chief Shane Wilson began working on converting the 1-mile race car into one that was strong enough to compete at the ultra-fast 1.5-mile TMS.
But having a car that was designed for a shorter track, which had a larger brake package than needed, and one that should have been way off the pace, did not detour Sieg and his team of rag-tag everything men, who clawed for a Playoff berth throughout the season. In fact, this was just another day in the park.
And they did what they’ve done for the majority of the season. They got their hands and elbows dirty and Sieg put in the work behind the wheel.
On a night where trouble was around every turn, and several top-dogs found hard contact with each other and the wall, it was Sieg who was left standing. Somehow, with a 10th-place finish.
