July 14th - July 18th, 2008
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After a busy off-season, I am really excited to be back racing! Although we weren’t actually racing during the last few months, the guys were hard at work in the shop. And while we put a lot of emphasis into getting our Chevy Silverado trucks ready, the guys also continued practicing pit stops and never quit working hard. The off-season does allow them to spend more time with their families, but their dedication and continued efforts to make our trucks better goes on even when we aren’t at the track.
We also spent a lot of time and effort this off-season preparing for Daytona—testing there once and twice at Talladega—because Daytona is like our Super Bowl. In many ways it is the biggest race of the year, but then again, it’s not, because every race is important.
With that said, we had a decent race in Daytona with our eighth place finish. Was I happy with it? I guess I was a little disappointed because I felt like we could have done better. But it’s always a success anytime we can finish in the top-ten.
This season I really wanted to get the year started off with a decent finish at Daytona, because over the years we keep getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Somebody can mess up and take five or six trucks out because we run on top of each other. This time out I decided to take a different strategy and run near the back and move to the front nearer the end. I figured I could stay far enough behind to avoid the wrecks. Towards the end of the race it looked like that the plan was successful land I began moving up to the front.
Unfortunately, I think our shot at winning the race or having a top-five finish ended when Chad Chaffin got bumped toward the end of the race and then got sideways, eventually flipping over. It started a chain reaction in which David Reutimann, who was in front of me, had to hit the brakes which meant I had to brake too. Then I got hit from behind and pushed into Reutimann, knocking in the right front of the bumper. We knew that we were in trouble at that point, because anytime you mess up the aerodynamics of your race truck at Daytona, your shot of winning the race or running good is pretty much out the window.
When they dropped the green flag for the green-white-checkered finish, my truck wouldn’t turn off the corner because of the air getting underneath the front of the truck and lifting the front tires. I was trying to draft with the trucks in front of me and trying to hang on to what I had, so coming out of there with a top-10 finish was not bad considering the way the nose of my truck was. I was happy in one sense and disappointed in another. I wish we wouldn’t have gotten tangled up in that wreck back there, but all in all it wasn’t a bad finish.
From there it was off to the West Coast and to Fontana, California, a track we tested at and felt good about. We were particularly excited because we had a different paint scheme on our truck for the first time in Wayne Spear’s 25 years of racing. His race car colors have always been dark blue, light blue and white, the same as you see on my truck and have seen on their trucks for the last ten years. When they wanted to come out and introduce their FlameGuard product, they wanted to change the truck up and do an awesome looking paint scheme, which Connie Spears designed.
Not only was the paint scheme awesome, but the truck was incredible. Dave McCarty and the guys gave me a truck that handled unbelievably, and my Ron Hutter engine was flawless. We led for a long time and had a good race, then fell back towards the end when we pitted. But I knew we were still going to be in good shape and had a shot at winning the race. As I was making my way back up through the pack I was making a pass and the angle of the trucks coming off of Turn 2 dropped the air from my spoiler and I lost the rear of the truck. When I went to correct it, it shot me into the outside wall and our day was done.
But that’s how it goes sometimes. If you are in this business long enough, you’ll have a race like that—where you have the best truck out there and then something happens. It’s definitely disappointing and hard to swallow at the time. But it is part of racing. And when it happens, you’ve just got to pack up, move on to the next race and focus on winning all over again. That’s what we’re going to do as we now head into Atlanta.
I love racing at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. I like the layout of the track and all the history behind it. It’s definitely got three or four different grooves on the racetrack, so it’s just a neat place to race.
We had planned on running our California Chevy Silverado again at Atlanta, but we lost that so it was a little bit of a setback. After California we came back to the race shop here in Mooresville, North Carolina and went back to work. All the guys have put in a lot of long hours and now we’ve got a good truck for Atlanta. I feel we have just as good a shot as anybody to collect the victory at Atlanta and I can’t wait. If we don’t unload like we expect to, I’ve got such a great crew chief in Dave McCarty and such a great team, I know that once the race starts we’re going to be ready to win.
Following Atlanta we will have two weeks off before going to Martinsville, Virginia for the Kroger 250. We’re heading to Martinsville for a one day test on Thursday, March 24th, and then Friday evening I’m going to fly home and enjoy Easter with my family.
I’m really excited about the 2005 season—the 10th anniversary of the Craftsman Truck Series. The Series is so competitive now that it’s unbelievable. The competition level was fierce in 2004 and I didn’t think it could get any tougher than what it was. Then you bring Ron Hornaday back, you bring Jimmy Spencer in and Ricky Craven…it just doesn’t stop.
The fan base is growing with every race. People love the series because the competition on the racetrack is unbelievable and a lot of the drivers from the NEXTEL Cup Series are now in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which I think is good for the series. People love Truck Series racing because we don’t run 500 mile races, we only run 250 mile races and we drive the wheels off the pickup trucks for two hours—from the time they drop the green to the time they drop the checkered. With all the new additions to the series, it’s only going to get tougher.
And with the success of the Busch Series race in Mexico two weekends ago, there is a chance that the Craftsman Truck Series may get a date outside the country in the future, which could only help increase the awareness of the Truck Series. My thoughts on the possibility: I’m blessed to be part of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and wherever they tell me to race I’ll be happy to go. Whether it’s Mexico, Canada or wherever, I’ll just be glad to be there competing. If we go where the Busch Series raced, it looked like a fun road course to race on and I think the Truck Series would put on a heck of a show there. It would be awesome! If they ever do that, I’ll be looking forward to it and be ready to go.
However, I haven’t done a lot of road racing and the last couple ones I did… well lets just say, I have a lot to learn. It’s definitely not one of my strong points, but if we’ve got to go race on a road course track like the one Mexico, then I’m willing to go to school and learn more about it and be ready for the challenge when it comes.
Now, I won’t be the one lobbying for a road course, but if they throw that at us I’ll be excited. I love to race and wherever they send us, I’ll be happy to be there. If there is a road course in our future, I’ll definitely be ready.
But for now we are concentrating on the season ahead of us and we’re all excited and looking forward to really getting it going. We plan on putting our Spears Chevrolet Silverado near the front and winning several races—starting this Friday at Atlanta.
Still haven’t joined the Frontstretch Forums? Here’s a peek at what you’re missing this week:
Who will make the Chase and who will drop out?
With the purchase of Budweiser by InBev, could Budweiser be on their way out of NASCAR?
Pondering Kyle Busch and the effect he’s had on racing this season…
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