Skylar Gee Banks Top 10 Finish In Vankor Texas Sprint Car Nationals Finale

Story By: BRYAN HULBERT / SKYLAR GEE RACING – FORT WORTH, TX – Skylar Gee’s weekend at Tony Stewart presents the Vankor Texas Sprint Car Nationals was a little up and down, but it ended on the upswing as the Strongs Crane Service/Pat Beck Motorsports No. 99 charged from 18th to sixth on Saturday night.

“We were okay. Struggled on Friday night, but we got things figured out on Saturday,” explained Gee.

Sixth in Heat Race action on Friday night, the deep finish meant a spot in the B-Feature where Skylar fought a tight racecar to a seventh-place finish the entire race.

“We felt pretty good with what we had at Devil’s Bowl, and started at the same place but we just couldn’t get the car freed up and under me all night. It acted like we had a bad shock or a bar, but we didn’t. We were just too tight.”

Having to utilize a provisional into the 25-lap preliminary feature event, Skylar was able to move from 24th to 16th.

Going over the car on Saturday, Skylar stated that the team didn’t change much with the car and that instead, the track came to them. While Skylar still had to race through a B-Feature, the result was a win to grid the A-Feature 18th.

“The first few laps were kind of tricky. The track was a lot slicker in the B-Main than in the A-Main. The Modifieds kind of chewed the track up and brought it back so I was tight early, but as the fuel load burned off, it started getting better and once we started passing guys, I got my confidence up and started driving it harder. Pretty soon we were up there pretty close to the hunt,” he said. “I could see Travis [Rilat] and where he was running so I started following what he was doing. He’s raced there more than I have, so I was seeing what I could learn.”

Weather permitting, Skylar’s next event is slated to be on Saturday, April 14 at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa for the 2018 season opener. Skylar will compete in the 360cid division.