By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
FORT WORTH, Texas – Blake Koch’s championship hopes took a hit Friday afternoon at the start of opening practice for Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.
The 31-year-old Florida native was on his first lap at the 1.5-mile oval when the car veered right and hit the Turn 2 wall and severely damaging his No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet.
“Something broke on the car,” Kock said about the incident.
The damage was enough to warrant the team to bring out the backup car, which was run at Chicagoland a few races ago, as the team failed to get back out and record a lap during the session.
“We already got the backup out. We raced it not too long ago so I know it’s a good car. It had three weeks off to set it up so I’m confident it’ll still be a good weekend for us.”
Koch sits third in the NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, seven points behind the tied points leaders of Elliott Sadler and Daniel Suarez.
