Brent Crews Wins Motul Pole Award at Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Where He Won Race a Year Ago
August 5, 2023
Nathan Herne on Front Row for Race, Rafa Matos Topped Weekend’s Only Practice Session
NASHVILLE (August 5, 2023) – Practice and qualifying are complete for the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli’s Big Machine Vodka SPIKED Coolers TA2 Series at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. Points leader Brent Crews in the No. 70 Franklin Road/Mobil 1/Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang earned the Motul Pole Award, setting a new track record with a time of 1:30.641, a faster lap time than last year’s pole, despite a light mist of rain during today’s time trials. Crews won the race at the Nashville street circuit one year ago after scoring his first-career win weeks prior at Road America. The 15-year-old is currently the series’ most recent winner, taking the victory at Road America this year as well.
Connor Zilisch in the No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro laid down an even faster lap in the qualifying session, but the team was disqualified in technical inspection for the modification of the car’s restrictor plate and will start from the rear of the field.
“We have a great crew at Nitro Motorsports to give me a fast car to be able to put it on the pole this weekend at Nashville,” said Crews. “We only got to have one practice session this weekend since our first practice session for TA2 was rained out, unfortunately, so we were short on time. It was super difficult to make sure that I remembered the course and didn’t hit any walls, so that was tough. We went straight into qualifying this morning at the earliest I think I’ve ever been on a track in a car before, so that was fun, for sure. It was still cold and I was still waking up. Thankfully, I put down a really fast lap and the car is still in one piece, so we’ll see what we can do later today.”
Qualifying Top Five:
1. Brent Crews, No. 70 Franklin Road/Mobil 1/Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang (1:30.641)
2. Nathan Herne, No. 29 CUBE 3/Berryman Ford Mustang (1:31.136)
3. Thomas Merrill, No. 26 Bennett/HP Tuners/Mike Cope Race Cars Ford Mustang (1:31.189)
4. Rafa Matos, No. 88 3-Dimensional Services Group Ford Mustang (1:31.225)
5. Jade Buford, No. 48 Big Machine Vodka SPIKED Coolers Ford Mustang (1:31.481)
Full qualifying results can be found here.
Practice 1:
Canceled
Practice 2 Top Five:
1. Rafa Matos, No. 88 3-Dimensional Services Group Ford Mustang (1:32.085)
2. Thomas Merrill, No. 26 Bennett/HP Tuners/Mike Cope Race Cars Ford Mustang (1:32.275)
3. Connor Zilisch, No. 7 Silver Hare Racing Chevrolet Camaro (1:32.524)
4. Nathan Herne, No. 29 CUBE 3/Berryman Ford Mustang (1:33.150)
5. Justin Marks, No. 8 Tootsies/Trackhouse/SLR-M1 Racecars Chevrolet Camaro (1:33.574)
Full practice results can be found here.
The race will be contested today at 3:40 p.m. CT/4:40 p.m. ET. It will be broadcast LIVE on MAVTV and can be streamed live here.
The re-broadcast of the Big Machine Vodka SPIKED Coolers TA2 Series race will air on MAVTV on Thursday, August 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET.
