[JessicaJ]

Austin Nemire Claims Second Top 10 of Season in Springfield
By Jessica Jenkins

Heading into the season of state fairs, Nemire-Lesko Racing showed up at the Illinois State Fairgrounds Saturday for the Tony Bettenhausen 100. With a strong runs at the last one-mile dirt track in Indianapolis that followed Toledo's sixth place finish, Austin Nemire was ready to move away from the mechanical issues that hounded his previous two races.

Finally enjoying a practice session without any issues, Nemire and his #16 team went out and qualified 16th, putting them immediately into the historic race amidst a massive field of cars. Firing off from the outside of row eight, the 19 year old found a safe spot to ride through the early portion of the 100 lap race. As tires wore out and the track came to him, Nemire began working his way up through a handful of yellows and long stretch of green flag racing. Staging competitive battles and driving past his competitors, the racer from Sylvania, OH moved into the top ten with around ten laps remaining. One final restart bunched up the field, setting up a short dash to the finish and when the young racer drove under the checkered flag, he was awarded with an eighth place result.

Having shaken the proverbial monkey off his back, Nemire earned his second top ten of the season and best finish to date on a mile dirt track. With a sense of relief and enthusiasm for what had been accomplished, he reflected, "The track was super narrow at first. It was wet and had a lot more moisture than usual. But it seemed pretty narrow and we weren't good at all until about halfway, which is when we started picking them up. If we'd been good a little bit sooner, I think we could have made it up there top 5-ish. I feel like we've been good on the miles since we've started racing the Crown cars. I just can't seem to find either luck or that speed in qualifying because I've had to start in the back of all of them. But we keep going forward, so hopefully we keep the good momentum going and carry it over to DuQuoin. I've got to thank Bob Lesko and Wayne Suburu for getting us here, my dad for all his hard work and everyone who came out and helped today."

Continue to follow Nemire and his team on Facebook at @AustinNemireRacing as they head to the DuQuoin State Fair on September 2nd for the Ted Horn 100.