Blake Koch at Talladega Superspeedway… Blake Koch has five previous starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) at Talladega Superspeedway. His best-career finish of 16th at the track came in 2011. In this race last year, Koch recorded his best-career start (13th) and was poised for a top-10 finish before getting involved in a late-race pileup while running 11th.
Sounding Off- Blake Koch… “Superspeedway racing is mentally and emotionally exhausting. You’re staring at the bumper of the car in front of you, trying to figure out where and when to pass, but there isn’t anywhere to pass. Also the thought is always in the back of your head when the next wreck will happen and if you’re going to be collected in it. It’s so important to stay focused at all stages of these races, which I feel like we have done a good job with this year. We just have to stay out of trouble and do everything we can to control the things we can actually control.”
2017 Season… Koch is currently seventh in the NXS Championship standings after eight races. Last week at Richmond International Raceway, Koch finished 11th after starting 14th and avoiding several late-race incidents.
Blake Koch NXS Career… Koch makes his 189th NXS start this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. To date, Koch has a career-best NXS starting position of second at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Nov. 2013), and a career-best NXS finish of eighth at RIR (April 2016), Bristol Motor Speedway (August 2016) and Phoenix International Raceway (November 2016).
Meet Blake…Koch will answer fan questions at the XFINITY Zone at Talladega Superspeedway’s fan midway on Friday, May 5th at 3:20 p.m. CDT.
Koch will meet with fans and sign autographs at the LeafFilter Gutter Protection display in the Talladega Superspeedway fan midway on Saturday, May 6th at 8:15 a.m. CDT.
Tune-In… The 113-lap NXS Sparks Energy 300 from Talladega Superspeedway will be televised live Saturday, May 6th, 2017 at 1:00 p.m. ET on FOX and will be broadcasted live on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel 90.
