Miguel Paludo was five laps away from another top10 in his trajectory in the mixed NASCAR Xfinity Series tracks with the #88 Chevrolet Camaro prepared by the JR Motorsports team.

The gaúcho from Nova Prata led the race climbing in the first two segments and was firmly inside the elite pack when he was forced to retire after hitting a spun competitor immediately in front of him on lap 40 of the 45 scheduled for the Road America round. It was the second of three appearances for the seven-time Porsche Cup Brazil champion in the biggest touring car category on the planet, driving one of the cars owned by Dale Earhardt Jr in the BRANDT colors in 2022.

The Brazilian's journey started with a brief free practice and the quali on Friday. The activities happened one after the other. In practice Miguel did four laps before returning to the pits to cool down the car for the qualifying session. In the quali, he did only one lap on the 6.515m track and 14 corners, dropping 2.1s between the two activities.

Since the #88 Camaro doesn't run regularly in the championship and there were 41 cars entered for 38 grid spots, he couldn't abuse it and run the risk of running out of time, especially on a track with many gravel pits where many yellow and red flags traditionally happen.

With the car starting 25th for Saturday's 45-lap race, the plan once again was to climb the field in the first two segments of 10 laps each, to attack in the final stages of the race.

It worked to the letter for 40 laps.

In the first stint, Miguel jumped up to 16th place, making his first pit-stop service in the neutralization between the first and second segments. He then set off in 23rd for another ten-lap shootout, finishing in 15th position.

Other competitors then stopped before the third segment, but the #88 Camaro stayed on track and lined up in eighth for the start of the final stage. Soon came another yellow flag, as BRANDT's car stopped for its second pit on lap 26 after narrowly escaping an incident involving 13 competitors starting two positions ahead of him. He returned 16th and continued to gain positions, logging laps in the rhythm of the five fastest. In turn 28 Miguel returned to the top 10 and was eighth when another yellow flag was waved across the circuit on lap 34.

The #88 then went into his third and last pit-stop of the afternoon and lined up 12th for the restart, with a full tank and four new tires. As competitors had stayed on the track, Paludo was soon back in the top 10, again with the pace of the leaders. He had already left the eighth place car behind when a dispute immediately in front of him left the #18 car on the track, with no room for the Brazilian to swerve. With severe damage to the hood of his Camaro, Miguel was forced to retire.

He returns to NASCAR on the mixed circuit at Indianapolis on July 30.

What he said:

"The weekend was very good and the race pace was satisfactory Noah and Allmendinger, who are two very fast guys, were behind me and couldn't pass me and I was able to pass two very fast competitors, which left us with pace to finish between sixth or seventh place. I was able to save the tires well, a characteristic of mine, and I felt I could recover well.

I got over the first accident with fright, but in the second I didn't have anything to do, and this ended the day. According to the team's calculations, I was supposed to come back seventh and get a certain top 10, with a chance of making the top 5. I was turning qualifying time at the end of the race with the used tire. The rhythm we lacked in practice for adapting to the car, and especially to the braking, we managed to get in the race.

But unfortunately it ended with a race accident that got out of control. The next stage is in less than a month and I'm excited."

Miguel Paludo