Miguel Paludo (ninth) was the highest finishing Toyota driver in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Tundra drivers Timothy Peters (11th), Todd Bodine (13th), Max Papis (14th) and Johanna Long (18th) were also earned top-20 finishes in the 148-lap event.
Other Toyota drivers in the field included David Starr (23rd), Johnny Chapman (29th), Brendan Gaughan (31st) and Kyle Busch (33rd).
Peters is fifth in the unofficial NCWTS point standings — 58 points behind leader Austin Dillon. Bodine (sixth), Gaughan (12th), Starr (13th), Paludo (17th) and Papis (18th) are also in the top-20 in the point standings.
MIGUEL PALUDO, No. 7 Duroline Tundra, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 9th How was your race? “It was good, you know, top-10. Good for these guys and good for me as well for the points. I want to try to get top-15 (in points). We fought a loose truck during the race. Made adjustments, got free, got good in the middle, so next time we need to be a little bit tighter, but overall it was good.”
What happened on the final restart? “I was saving fuel, so I tried to clean my tires before the restart, but the front ones I couldn’t. I went straight up in turn one and that hurt us a little bit, but once I got clean I went and gained two or three spots. It was a good day for us and I’m glad for a ninth-place finish here.”
TIMOTHY PETERS, No. 17 NTB / Service Central, Red Horse Racing Finishing Position: 11th How was your race? “Oh, it was good right until the last lap. I hated that caution that came out there and gave us a green-white-checkered. I knew something about a little over halfway something was going on. It felt like a valve spring might have came loose on us. All in all, Triad Racing Technologies does a great job. Everybody in the pits did a great job. This Service Central National Tire and Batteries Tundra was great all night long. We have a weekend off and we’re going to work on this baby right here and take it to Homestead and the good Lord willing, maybe we can get on that stage.” What happened on the final lap? “She just blew up. It’s a good effort by everybody. That’s why they call it racing. We take the good with the bad.”
TODD BODINE, No. 5, Big Red Tundra, Randy Moss Motorsports Finishing Position: 13th
MAX PAPIS, No. 9 GEICO Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 14th How was your race? “We fought like hell and I almost got by Todd (Bodine) going through (turn) three on last the restart, but it was a great battle and we learned a lot today and I’m really proud.” Was the bottom lane the preferred line? “It was good. It was kind of like the bottom lane was the fast lane, but to pass you had to go on the outside. Passing was very difficult, but I learned a ton tonight.”
JOHANNA LONG, No. 20 Panhandle Grading & Paving Tundra, Panhandle Motorsports Finishing Position: 18th
DAVID STARR, No. 81 Zachry / NCCER / ASI Limited Tundra, SS Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 23rd What happened to your Tundra? “We struggled with handling all day, but we started to get it right there at the end. I thought I was going to get a top-10, but we just had an engine problem. It’s disappointing.”
JOHNNY CHAPMAN, No. 07 BOBBER.info / ASI Limited Tundra, SS Green Light Racing Finishing Position: 29th
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, No. 62 International Trucks / Monaco RVs Tundra, Germain Racing Finishing Position: 31st What happened out there? “There’s a big hole where there shouldn’t be a hole. I don’t know. On the restart, we were great, man. We went from 21st to like 11th in the first 25 laps or something. Our Tundra was fast just like we said it would be with race cars around us. We were smoking. Made a couple of adjustments right off the bat. On the restart, everything is good. Put it in first, put it in second, put it in third and all of the sudden she vibrated and ‘ka-bang.’ I don’t know what it was. Triad (Racing Technologies) does a great job for us. You never know what these things are. Could be a metal part. Could be many different things. They do a great job all year. That’s the first one I’ve had in two years now with Triad, so I’ll take that record any day.”
KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Traxxas Tundra, Kyle Busch Motorsports Finishing Position: 33rd What happened between you and Ron Hornaday Jr.? “Well, if you consider Ron (Hornaday Jr.) was in the championship, maybe Ron could have played it a little smarter on lap 15 and checked up a little and given room to everybody around. Obviously, if you make it a three-wide situation — I can’t go up in the dirt, you know? I’m already on the outside lane. There’s not three lanes out here right now. It’s a truck race. It’s the first race of the night here this weekend. So if I just lay over and give up everything for Ron Hornaday, that’s not Kyle Busch’s fashion. I’m out here to win a race just as much as anybody else is and when he races up on my inside, gets loose and takes me up to the fence, I ended up losing my cool. And, I’ve been wrecked four weeks in a row and finally I just had enough of it. I’m sorry it was Ron Hornaday and he’s going after a championship, but the fact of the matter is it’s just — you can’t place all the blame on one person. There was two people who got into it to begin with and there was two people that ended it.”
What happened on the race track with the incident under green and then under caution? “Obviously it’s two guys racing for tight real estate. There’s only two lanes of race track out there right now. I’m racing for a win just as much as Ron Hornaday is and it’s lap 15. If he wants to make it three-wide with a lap car knowing that you always get loose when you’re on the inside, he got loose and got into me and knocked me up into the wall. I lost my cool, yeah, no doubt about it. I’ve been wrecked four weeks in a row and I’ve had enough of it and I retaliated. It’s certainly my fault for doing that. But, if everybody wants to say Hornaday is racing for a championship and roll over, that’s not my fashion. That’s not anybody else’s fashion out here. All these race car drivers are racers to go out here and win a race and that’s what I was here to do and I got taken out of it on lap 15.”
Did you do anything wrong or do you feel like you defended yourself? “My truck was hurt. I brushed the wall, but my truck was hurt where I don’t think we could have won after that. If you’re a guy racing for a championship, you need to be smart enough to understand that you can’t go three-wide on lap 15. Knowing how bad the trucks are when you’re on the inside of somebody, not expect to get loose. Yeah it was my fault after the fact, but who’s going to fix my truck after it wrecked in turn two the first time?”
Have a nice weekend watching football, Kyle.