Off The Press

More

 

 

Search:

Search more PR's by name or teams

 

 

 

P R E S S   R E L E A S E

Note: This press release may have been edited for formatting purposes only

Posted on July 20, 2008 PopUpScript Email   Print

 

TOYOTA NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) Post-Race Notes & Quotes Kentucky Speedway - July 19, 2008

Johnny Benson finished first in tonight's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) race at Kentucky Speedway. It was Benson's second NCTS win this season (Milwaukee and Kentucky), and his 11th career NCTS victory. All 11 of his wins have come in the Bill Davis Racing No. 23 Tundra. Toyota drivers Michael Annett (second), David Starr (fifth), Mike Skinner (sixth), Kyle Busch (seventh), Terry Cook (eighth) and Marc Mitchell (ninth) also registered top-10 finishes. Other Toyota drivers in the field included Ted Musgrave (13th), Todd Bodine (27th), Justin Marks (31st) and Chrissy Wallace (33rd). Tundra drivers have now registered six NCTS wins in 2008. Benson (Kentucky and Milwaukee) and Busch (California and Atlanta) each have a pair of wins. Other Camry drivers with race wins this season include Todd Bodine (Daytona) and Scott Speed (Dover) Tundra drivers have won 44 races since the beginning of the 2004 NCTS season. Mike Skinner started from the pole at Kentucky and Kyle Busch started on the outside of row one. Skinner picked up his third pole position this season (Dover, Michigan and Kentucky), his 31st NCTS pole in a Toyota Tundra and the 46th NCTS pole of his career. Tundra drivers have won 57 poles since the beginning of the 2004 NCTS season.

JOHNNY BENSON, No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra, Bill Davis Racing Finished: 1st How does it feel to be in 'Victory Lane' tonight? "This is awesome, awesome. Trip Bruce (crew chief) is the man. He just really built a great truck. It was tough. Have to thank TRD and Toyota for the great bodies and the great horsepower. It ran good, but it wasn't easy today. It may have looked easy, it was just a little slick out there today. We had great pit stops. We played a little strategy because we had a loose right front tire -- which I'm glad that caution came out. These guys continue to do a great job "

How does it feel to be pack in the lead in the point standings? "The race was great. We were in the points lead for those two races which was great. I made a mistake at Memphis and over- revved the engine. We were running second (at Memphis) and had a great run and I felt we would have continued to run well. Trip Bruce (crew chief) and the guys -- time and time -- have done a tremendous job on our Tundra. It's just a pleasure to go out there and race with these guys and have an opportunity to win races. Our goal is to try and win the championship. Man, everybody that has got up there in the points has definitely had issues. If you would back up the last two seasons -- with the amount of issues that we all have had -- there's no way that any of us should win the championship based off the last two years. It's been amazing on that aspect. It's great for Craftsman to have a points battle that's just unbelievable. It's a lot of fun to be a part of, I can tell you that."

How did you make that pass in turn three to take the lead? "It was pretty cool on my end. There are a couple other guys that didn't like it. We got such a great run off turn two. We started fourth and there were some lapped cars in there. They got tied up just a little bit and I had a tremendous run off turn two. I got alongside the 18 (Dennis Setzer) and I thought; "We're in pretty good shape here.' I figured I would hold him up a little bit and we both had a good run on the 22 (Michael Annett). I knew it was going to be -- obviously, a 50-50 shot -- whether he was going to get off the gas and push him a little bit or turn left. He turned left like I expected him to so I had to turn left. So, it was a mad dash down to the corner. It was just a mad dash down the corner. I went into the corner straight. I stayed as low as I could. Hopefully, I gave those gave those guys more than enough room. At that point in time I' m sure I had the best spot. I'm glad the 22 (Michael Annett) was able to come out of there in second-place and have a one-two finish for Bill Davis Racing."

JOHNNY BENSON, No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra, Bill Davis Racing (continued) Does this win give you some momentum? "I think we've been good all year. We had our problems at Atlanta which kind of hurt us there. We had problems at Martinsville. Of course, last week (Memphis) we had the engine problem. That was probably the huge hurt because that was preventable and the other ones may have not been. Just week in and week out Trip (Bruce, crew chief) gives me something that is capable of winning the race, or at least running in the top-five, for sure. If we can see the front and get there, I'm clearly confident that if we work hard, we'll get there. Bill and Gail Davis gave me a great opportunity to have fun. This is way cool for us."

MICHAEL ANNETT, No. 22 Pilot Travel Centers Tundra, Bill Davis Racing Finished: 2nd How was your truck tonight? "It's just this equipment I'm in and the guys that I'm surrounded with, like Doug Wolcatt (crew chief). He made a great call there tonight and track position was everything. J.B. (Johnny Benson) got by us and who better to follow than your teammate. Our truck came to life when I got behind him. After that, the 'double-deuce' was running pretty fast."

How did your truck handle tonight? "We had a couple different trucks tonight. We were pretty tight early and then after our first pit stop we were pretty loose. The truck was just completely back in traffic. The crew chief (Doug Wolcott) made a great call with two tires there and got us great track position out front. Johnny Benson got by us and after that is was just follow the veteran. We had probably a truck as equal to him, but not any faster. It was pretty cool to get Bill Davis trucks in the top two."

DAVID STARR, No. 11 Red Horse Racing Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finished: 2nd How was your race tonight? "I love Kentucky Speedway and this is a great facility for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series to race at. Tonight's race was very exciting not only for the teams and drivers but for the fans. My No. 11 Red Horse Racing team is the just awesome and gave me an amazing truck. Tom DeLoach and Jeff Hammond, my owners, have a great race team and I could not be happier. My crew chief Jamie Jones made all the right adjustments and calls on pit road tonight, and my pit crew had great stops. We started 17th and were not very good at the beginning of the race, but every adjustment that Jamie (Jones) made allowed my Toyota Tundra to come alive. I thought I was really going to be able to catch Dennis (Setzer) there at the end, but every time that I got close to him, I would just lose the nose of my truck. But, it is great to have another top-five finish and I could not be prouder of my Red Horse Racing team."

MIKE SKINNER, No. 5 Toyota Tundra, Bill Davis Racing Finished: 6th

KYLE BUSCH, No. 51 Miccosukee Resorts Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports Finished: 7th

TERRY COOK, No. 60 Wyler.com Tundra, Wyler Racing Finished: 8th

MARC MITCHELL, No. 15 Hyprene Ergon Tundra, Billy Ballew Motorsports Finished: 9th

TED MUSGRAVE, No. 59 Team ASE/Harris Trucking Tundra, HT Motorsports Finished: 13th

TODD BODINE, No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Tundra, Germain Racing Finished: 27th

JUSTIN MARKS, No. 9 Construct Corps Tundra, Germain Racing Finished: 31st What happened that forced you out of the race? "On that restart it got kind of crazy. The Construct Corps Tundra was having a really, really good night -- running top-five all race long. We had one of the side windows come out and I got real loose. We had to fix that on a pit stop there and that shuffled us back to the back of the pack. Down the back straightaway -- there were three, four, five rows deep -- the runs get bigger and bigger and bigger. So, when you are the back of the pack you're going 200 MPH or whatever. You're hauling the mail going in there. Somebody got into somebody and I didn't see how it started. I got loose going in the corner and checked up and I was on the brakes all I could. The thing just slid up. I tried everything I could to get out of that mess. Just hate it. I think we showed everybody that is a team as good as any out there."

CHRISSY WALLACE, No. 03 Geico/Germain Toyota Tundra, Germain Racing Finished: 33rd What happened when you made contact with the wall? "We were battling with Jack Sprague for a while and we went into turn three. I guess we both were driving pretty aggressive. We were running inside of him and he took the air off of us and got loose and backed into the wall."

What do you do when that happens? "You're pretty much along for the ride. What it pretty much does is just makes you completely loose to where you can't do anything to correct the truck. If you turn the wheel the other way you are pretty much going to go into the wall."

 

The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the publisher.  All comments other than website related problems need to be directed to the author.  Copyright 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.

 

Click here to discuss this at our forum!

 

 

 

   
 

 

SM NEWSLETTER
FREE Racing News!
Enter your name and email address below:
Name:
Email:
Subscribe  Unsubscribe 

 

Junk Car to Charity - Free Nationwide Towing

T I C K E T S

NASCAR Race Tickets

from Coast To Coast

NASCAR Travel

from Sportstravel.com

Check out these cheap NASCAR tickets, Wicked tickets, Red Sox tickets, MLB & Indy 500 tickets here.

Find Indianapolis & Daytona Speedway tickets, Jersey Boys, Lion King, and Super Bowl tickets at this place.

NASCAR tickets, Cubs tickets, Tigers tickets,

Red Sox tickets,

Yankees tickets.

NASCAR Tickets for all speedways. Bristol, Daytona, Las Vegas and the Brickyard from gotickets.com.

NASCAR packages for all races. Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Las Vegas NASCAR, Bristol Motor Speedway & Texas Motor Speedway. Get your NASCAR Schedule from Sports Travel.

Coast to Coast Tickets has NASCAR race tickets for the following tracks:

Darlington Raceway tickets, Lowes Motor Speedway tickets, Dover Int'l Speedway tickets, Texas Motor Speedway tickets, Michigan Int'l Speedway tickets,

Daytona Int'l Speedway tickets, Indianapolis Raceway Park tickets, Bristol Motor Speedway tickets, Las Vegas Motor Speedway tickets, Atlanta Motor Speedway tickets.

We have NASCAR deals, and NFL tickets. Our Dallas CowboysAtlanta Falcons, Philadelphia Eagles, and Pittsburgh Steelers tix are hot!

 

FEATURED LINKS

 

 

toolbar powered by Conduit

 

Home  |  Sprint Series  |  Nationwide Series  |  News Feeds  |  Newsletter  |  News Links  |  News Briefs

Press Releases  |  Advertising  |  Write For Us  |  Link To Us  |  Links  |  Poll  |  Search  |  Help/Contact

 

Copyright © 2000-2008 SpeedwayMedia.com.  All rights reserved.