Big day at ‘Dega for Cassill, Gase

Cedar Rapids was pretty well-represented on Saturday in Talladega, Ala.

When the checkered flag finally fell on the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, two Cedar Rapids natives, Landon Cassill and Joey Gase, were in the lead pack.

It was a career-best 11th-place finish for Gase, and an eighth-place finish for Cassill – who made a move for third coming off the final turn, but was blocked and unable to make the pass.

'It was an amazing day; we had to miss all the wrecks,” Gase said in a phone interview last night. 'It's really cool that me and Landon were both able to have a great finish today and represent Cedar Rapids a little bit. It's always fun to be able to do that and have everyone back home rooting for us.”

Cassill said he hadn't talked to Gase after the race, but agreed that two hometown guys having such positive results was really cool.

Their two families are well-acquainted with one another, as Cassill raced against Gase's dad Bob at Hawkeye Downs and other tracks. Cassill drew parallels between he and Gase's Nationwide careers, and is proud of his younger colleague's progress.

'It's phenomenal,” Cassill said of both having strong runs. 'Just like me, he has to do a lot with what he has. And I would imagine, in a lot of ways, he's seen the same progress in his team that I've seen in mine – just on different levels. It's pretty cool to have someone from my hometown fighting the good fight (with me).”

The task for both racers on track wasn't easy all day long.

As happens at the restrictor plate tracks, there were multiple multi-car wrecks, and both Cassill and Gase were lucky and talented enough to avoid major damage. Cassill said drivers are constantly thinking about their positioning in the draft, not only to advance forward, but also to be able to take evasive maneuvers in the event of an accident.

Once they'd made it through the first two so-called 'Big Ones,” a plan for the run to the finish was put in place. For Cassill, things were set up pretty well, and though he wasn't able to make his final move work, he was thrilled to be able to say he had a shot at it.

'It was nice to be able to start on the outside on the final restart, but once we did get restarted, there was a hole to go to the inside, and I felt like the best way to protect my position was to be there,” Cassill said. 'On the last lap, I had a really big head of steam … and made the move to go to the inside, and the block (by David Ragan) kind of killed my momentum. No matter what, the options were good.

'There was no time for (thinking). It's just a matter of staying in it and going.”

Gase's final restart was a bit more stressful. He restarted in 10th, but was left only to hope his engine would make it the full distance.

Under the red flag after the big wreck with four laps to go, his car's temperature gauge was pegged, a sign that it wasn't long for the world. But with the racing gods smiling down, he was able to get to the finish and secure his best-ever finish.

'We had a little engine that could today. We had an old-style SB2 in it, and the water gauge was so hot, you couldn't read it. It was amazing the engine held up at the end,” Gase said. 'I was just hoping the engine would last, because we were overheating really bad during the red flag. And I was hoping I didn't end up in something stupid at the end after missing all the wrecks all day. Luckily it all worked out.”

Cassill will start 41st in today's Sprint Cup race at Talladega. The Nationwide Series is off next week, but both Cassill and Gase will be racing when the series comes to Iowa Speedway on May 18.

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