Brad Smith and the No. 26 Koolmat.com Ford team were still reeling from a 29th-place finish at Toledo.

The team was able to put the car back together during the 3-day turnaround and ended up leaving DuQuoin’s Southern Illinois 100 with another top-20 finish, ending the event one lap down to the leader.

Brad started the event at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds from the 29th starting position. Early in the race, the car suffered from some over-heating problems as the radiator screen got clogged with dirt. There were also some minor handling problems in the earlier laps, causing Brad to go down a lap early. The team was able to avoid going down further laps and finished the event in 16th.

This was Brad’s eleventh top-20 finish of the season.

The third race of what Brad affectionately terms “hell week” is this Saturday at Chicagoland.

You can catch it live on SPEED at 2 pm Eastern.