Kyle Sieg Eager After Home Top 10: ‘I’m Pumped Up’

Kyle Sieg (28) leads a pack of cars Friday night at EchoPark Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

HAMPTON, Ga. – The highest finishing home-state driver in Friday night’s Focused Health 250 at Georgia’s EchoPark Speedway was not five-time winner Austin Hill.

Instead, it was underdog Kyle Sieg and the family-owned RSS Racing operation.

The Tucker, Ga. native scored his first top 10 on the season and his fourth of his career. The race saw a one-hour, 18-minute red flag due to lightning in the area, as well as chaos once the race restarted, but Sieg managed to stay out of all of it.

Kyle’s older brother Ryan was swept up in the 10-car ‘Big One’ just after the race resumed, and with Hill having fuel pressure issues early on, the door was wide open and Sieg took advantage.

“It's pretty big,” Sieg said post race of the strong run. “We [have] had a rough couple of months, and we [have] only really had one or two good runs this year [at Las] Vegas and Phoenix. It feels good to come out here at Atlanta and finish top 10, especially at home. I’m pumped up.

“I just thank everybody on the crew for trying to get things right and trying to fix things to make us better and find speed. We’re doing all we can do, so we’ll see where we are when we move on to next week [at Chicago] and see what we got there.”

The much-needed top ten is a good turnaround for the No. 28 team after having 13 finishes outside the top 20 this year. Sieg hopes this marks the start of a good stretch of runs.

“We need it,” Sieg said of some momentum. “We have the car; we’re capable of running there and Ryan has shown that. We just got to get our [stuff] right. The crew’s got to get their [stuff] right.

“I know I can run with the best any given week. I just [have] to have the car underneath [me] and everything like that.”

Something keen-eared fans have noticed is how different Sieg’s car sounds than others. It is one of the very few cars that still uses an X-Pipe exhaust, predominately from the NASCAR Cup Series Gen 4 days.

The sound of the car alone have created many fans of both Sieg and RSS Racing.

“It’s just all we have. That’s what we got. It sounds good,” Sieg remarked. He is also appreciative of the love he’s received from social media for still using them.

The next race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be at the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course on Saturday, July 5, with live coverage airing at 4:30 p.m. ET live on The CW, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.