Michael Caruso stars for Nissan with fourth place at Winton

WINTON, Australia – Michael Caruso has continued his impressive Winton form, scoring a fine fourth place finish in the final race of the NP300 Navara Winton SuperSprint on Sunday.

After qualifying fourth, Caruso drove his NP300 Navara-backed Altima V8 to within one place of the podium by making good use of his soft tires in the final stint.

The result added to his third and 10th place finishes in Saturday's two short races.

Jack Daniel's Nissan driver Rick Kelly finished 11th having overcome a slow pit stop early in the race. The slow stop threw his strategy arrangements out, meaning he had to complete a mega 36-lap stint on his soft tires.

Jayco driver Todd Kelly finished one place behind his brother in 12th, while James Moffat's difficult weekend continued. He eventually crossed the line in 19th place.

The next round of the V8 Supercars Championship will be at Darwin's Hidden Valley Raceway June 19-21.

QUOTES:

Michael Caruso, #23 NP300 Navara Nissan Altima V8

"It was a great weekend. It's nice to finish the weekend with a bunch of positives," said Michael Caruso.

"We saw at Barbagallo that we'd taken a step forward, and to come here and make it count was very important.

"What is more important is to carry that forward to Darwin and continue to push forward in the championship.

"I feel we now have a handle on the aero package changes, and that is positive to bring us towards the front.

"I'm also very pleased with how the team performed. It has been tough at times and the guys have just come in and responded really well."

Rick Kelly, #15 Jack Daniel's Nissan Altima V8

"Qualifying for us was reasonably good. It wasn't a seamless session. Sixth for us is fantastic – a testament to the speed of the car and the development work the guys have done," said Rick Kelly.

"I didn't get a fantastic start, but we settled in and it was pretty tough on the old tires. We came in for out pit stop as scheduled, and unfortunately we made the same mistake that we made in Perth.

"It put us onto the back foot from there. We were back in last, and we had a left rear tire that was three race stints old, so it was very difficult for that whole middle stint.

"It forced us onto the soft tires a little bit earlier than we would have liked – a little bit further back in the pack – and I had to hustle to get through some guys. We did that pretty well.

"Unfortunately in doing that, it just hurts those soft tires, and they never really recover from being pushed like that.

"From there we just had to hold on the best we could. We got moved out of the way a little bit rudely by (James) Courtney, and we just tried to maintain that position, and eventually (Jamie) Whincup caught me and snuck by.

"We finished 11th, a pretty good recovery after an incident that cost us an opportunity at a great result today.

"Good to finish 11th, but it's time for us to go back to the workshop and ensure that it doesn't happen a third time."

Todd Kelly, #7 Jayco Nissan Altima V8

"It's good to come out with reasonable points," said Todd Kelly.

"We had glimpses of potential in the first race on Saturday (fifth place), but we didn't get the most out of it for the rest of the weekend.

"It would have been good to be a few spots higher in qualifying, and it would have translated to a few more positions in the race, but from where we ended up, I'm reasonably happy.

"The cars are showing a lot of potential and I'm pretty excited about the second half of the year."

James Moffat, #99 Toshiba Nissan Altima V8

"It was a difficult weekend for our car," said James Moffat.

"We were off the pace of our teammates, which we'll have to have a look at. Qualifying 20th, finishing 19th – that really sums up our weekend.

"There's a bit of a break for Darwin, which is good. It will give us a chance to look over everything."

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