ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Blake Koch spent a lengthy caution period Saturday afternoon performing the customary practice of saving fuel, shutting his No. 8 car off and on to conserve precious drops. What wasn’t customary was his late-race view, up front and with only the pace car in sight.
That’s why the heartache was especially difficult to take Saturday at Road America, when his TriStar Motorsports entry lost power while leading with five laps remaining in the Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville. With it went his hopes for an upset NASCAR XFINITY Series victory, a breakthrough five years in the making.
“It just … nothing. Dead. Totally dead,” Koch said, managing a sheepish smile while describing the helplessness of coasting to a stop, relinquishing his position during the final yellow flag. “No voltage, no power, no lights, no nothing. I got pushed all the way around the track to pit road and they reconnected the battery. They got me back out there on the lead lap to salvage a 21st-place finish, but that’s where we always finish. We were looking for something better.”
Koch had worked his way to the front under green-flag conditions, his team working a fuel strategy ploy to near-perfection in the final road-course race of the season. When the final yellow flew for pole-starter Ben Rhodes‘ crash, the 30-year-old driver was in prime position, ready to restart alongside eventual race winner Paul Menard, who was in an even more aggressive fuel-saving mode.
Besides his flirtation with Victory Lane, Koch had extra motivation to perform well in front of representatives attending from the nearby Milwaukee office for his sponsor, LeafFilter.
“For them to see their car leading, it had to have been awesome and that’s what I was thinking about,” Koch said. “I’d love to win this race for them, and we were in position to give it our best shot. If the thing had kept going green, we had enough fuel. We saved early enough to where when we needed to run hard, we could’ve run hard. Unfortunately that caution came out and we were just saving, saving, saving, and then one time the car just wouldn’t start back up.
“Battery came disconnected and the rest is history. I was going to give it my best shot there, restarting in the lead next to the 33 (Menard) and we would’ve seen what happened.”
Besides the exposure and the potential for a feel-good underdog story, Koch said plenty of positives stood out. He led five laps, two more than he had cumulatively led in his previous 136 XFINITY Series starts.
“The guys will learn and you lose as a team, you win as a team,” Koch said, “and it’ll just make winning that first race that much better when you remember times like today.”