Frontstretch.com: The best seat at the track... the best view on the net! Saturday, November 21st 2009

David Starr Driver Diary: Looking for Improvement on the Mile and a Half's

David Starr · Friday July 18, 2008

After being off for a couple of weeks, we are finally back to racing again. As always, I’ve kept busy. David Starr Racing, my show car simulator company, has taken up a lot of my time, and we went testing for two days at Darlington a couple of weeks ago, so that was pretty cool. I was also able to enjoy the 4th of July with my family at the lake, and that was a lot of fun. While I have enjoyed my time off, I am definitely looking forward to getting back to what I love to do, which is racing.

We are definitely excited about being in Kentucky. Our recent fifth place run at Memphis was a great momentum builder for our team. It was good to be back into the Top 5 where we belong. Our Toyota Tundra was awesome and my crew chief Jamie Jones gave me a good truck. The guys had great pit stops and made good adjustments during the race, so we actually had a better truck than our fifth place finished showed. Our main problem was that we were having a little issue getting into the corner, where we couldn’t really get the truck to slow down, so we dealt with that all night. But all-in-all, it was not a bad finish.

David Starr Driver Diary : Milestones and Making Memories

David Starr · Friday June 20, 2008

While we didn’t have a very successful day on the track at MIS, it was still a very special day for me. I didn’t even know about it until after the race, but it was my 200th race in the Craftsman Truck Series. For me, it is quite an honor to have been in the Craftsman Truck Series for so long. Ever since I was a little boy, running around the racetrack with my dad who was a racer, this is just everything I’ve ever wanted to do. When I look back on the last several years, to be able to live my dream and be a part of the NASCAR family for 200 starts, I’m very thankful and blessed to be able to do this. I’ve been fortunate to get the opportunities I’ve had with the team owners who have given me this chance, and I’m very proud of that accomplishment and can’t wait for 200 more starts.

As I’ve said many, many times, I just love to race and I love everything about it. I love the competition, the noise, the smell, everything. There is no feeling like getting into the race truck and racing.

David Starr Driver Diary: Back To Full-Time Racing And Ready For A Victory

David Starr · Friday May 23, 2008

After several months of sporadic racing for the Truck Series, we are finally at the point of the season where we get to race almost every week. I love it! I hate racing one week and then waiting three weeks. Racing every week suits me just fine.

Now, we head to Mansfield — and I am excited. I’m also excited about PIT Corporate Training being back on my No. 11 Toyota Tundra this weekend. We got close to winning at Mansfield a few years ago, so we are going to try to accomplish the win this time. When you have a team like Red Horse Racing behind you, you are excited to race everywhere. Mansfield is a fun track, it’s exciting, action packed — and we love it.

David Starr Driver Diary : Sponsor Hunting And Keeping Spirits High After Kansas

David Starr · Friday May 2, 2008

The Craftsman Truck Series has had a lot of off time lately, but I’ve been staying busy since our last diary; I don’t ever stop working. I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but I’m either back in Charlotte working with my guys at the race shop, on the racing team, or testing somewhere. We’re not testing this week, so I got my company called David Starr Racing — it’s a show car, racing simulator company — so I spend a lot of time working at my shop, working on my simulators, and working on my truck and trailers.

We had a really good truck at Kansas. I had an idea that we couldn’t win the race because [Ron] Hornaday was so good, but we were anywhere from a third to a sixth place truck. Somebody just lost it with 50 laps to go [and collected us]. It was one of those racin’ deals — I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. You try and keep those things to a minimum; we’ve been fortunate over the years to have a really consistent record of finishing races, and never really having DNF’s.

David Starr Driver Diary: Martinsville and "Honey Do" Lists

David Starr · Friday March 28, 2008

It's been three weeks since we raced at Atlanta, and I can't wait to get back into the truck this weekend at Martinsville. As many of you may remember, two years ago I was able to drive my Red Horse Racing Toyota to victory there. But that was then. Even though we won at Martinsville in 2006, I don't look at this race any differently than I do any other race. I go into this weekend's race at Martinsville just like I went into Atlanta and California - knowing we can win.

David Starr Driver Diary: Back in the Saddle at Red Horse Racing

David Starr · Friday February 22, 2008

It was a very busy off-season for me. Along with reacquainting myself with my old team and all the testing we did for the 2008 season, I got married to my beautiful bride, Kim, and went on an amazing honeymoon. It was absolutely gorgeous! Considering that I don't ever get a chance to slow down, it was good to finally do that. As much as we would have loved to stay, we had to come back home and head to Daytona.

Before I talk about Daytona, you may notice a sticker on the b-post of our No. 11 Toyota Tundra this season. We will be honoring our teammate, co-hauler driver, Cornell Speas, who passed away this month of a heart attack at age 46. I didn't know him real well, but I talked to him some last year a couple of times and I visited with him for about an hour at New Hampshire, and he was an extremely pleasant guy. When I moved back over to Red Horse Racing, his best friend, who is the other truck driver Willie Divel, told me how it was Cornell's dream to be able to drive a hauler for a NASCAR team. It gives me a little peace to know that he got to live his dream before he passed.

David Starr Driver Diary: Goodbye to 2007... Excited About 2008!

David Starr · Friday December 21, 2007

Well, it was another very competitive, down-to-the-wire season in the Craftsman Truck Series. For the fans, and for us competitors, it was exciting because you didn't know who the champion was going to be until the final lap at Homestead. That's the way it should be, and the way it has been in the Craftsman Truck Series. The series continues to grow in popularity year after year, because people are seeing more and more how fierce the competition is.

The 2007 season was just an okay season for our Circle Bar Racing MaxxForce Diesel team. In our defense, most of my team was put together very late in the offseason, so we kind of had our backs up against the wall the whole time. With that said, being able to get into the top 10 in the final race of the season was a neat thing. Obviously, our expectations were much higher than that, but I feel we did everything we could to be successful. I just can't thank my MaxxForce team enough for all the effort they put into our trucks and pit stops all season. They were amazing considering everything they were up against.

David Starr Diary: 22 Down, 3 to Go!

David Starr · Thursday November 1, 2007

It's hard to believe there are only three more races until the end of the season. We haven't won a race yet, but we have made it into the top 10 in points which is a big accomplishment for our team. We are now 9th in points, and I have to say I am surprised. We haven’t had the season I had hoped we’d have, because it's been a very competitive series once again. I’m definitely disappointed in our results because I know we are better than that, we just haven’t had the finishes that we are capable of. We aren’t satisfied just making it into the top 10. As always, we are going to keep fighting for the last three races and try to move up in points and get that win. The whole International MaxxForce Diesel team is excited about it, and if we can keep that enthusiasm and run up front, the points will take care of themselves.

David Starr Driver Diary: David Starr Racing

David Starr · Thursday September 27, 2007

It's another off-weekend for the Craftsman Truck Series, but that doesn't mean I'm lounging around the house. Aside from the business of NASCAR racing, I keep myself extremely busy with David Starr Racing - my show car/simulator promotional company. We work with companies like Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper, and they use our real NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race cars for displays in front of Wal-Mart stores to promote their products and we also supply them with race car simulators. We take simulators to different Wal-Marts every weekend, the kind where you get in, the seat moves left to right, and you have a big computer screen in front of you where your racing other cars. It's a neat experience.

David Starr Driver Diary: Safe Racing and SafeLight

David Starr · Friday August 31, 2007

A couple of weeks ago we made some changes on our International MaxxForce Diesel team, including a new truck chief, Troy "TK" Kelly. We had a meeting at the shop about what we could do to work a little better as a team and man, what a difference. We unloaded with a great Ford F150 and for the first time, my truck and Rick Crawford's No. 14 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International truck were identical and it really worked out good. Our No. 10 International MaxxForce Diesel Ford F150 was pretty competitive the whole race and I actually thought we might have a shot at winning. In the end, it was a great call for my crew chief Dennis Connor to go with only right side tires. The chassis adjustment at the end helped me run the fastest laps of the weekend in the last 20 laps of the race. It was just good to be competitive and running back into the Top 5 where we should be. I know I finished fourth, but it felt like a win for us. I think we've got a lot of momentum going now at Circle Bar Racing and we're pretty excited about it. NASCAR racing is all about the chemistry and getting the right people. With our new truck chief Troy, it seems to be working in the shop and reflecting on the race track.

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