Catchfence

Joliet, Ill. (September 1, 2009) – Stacy Compton was one of only a handful of drivers who had ever raced at Chicagoland Speedway and his experience combined with great pit strategy allowed him to claim his career best finish at the 1.5-mile oval while driving the No. 60 SafeAuto Insurance Toyota in Friday night’s inaugural EnjoyIllinois.com 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Compton’s best previous finish at Chicagoland Speedway came in 2003 when he drove in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and finished 19th.

“It was a decent weekend,” said Compton, who was expected to be very competitive heading into Friday’s 150 lap event. “We unloaded and we weren’t very good. The entire first day, we really weren’t where we needed to be. Marcus (Richmond, Crew Chief), Tom (Buzze, General Manager), myself sat down after practice with Toyota and went back and looked at our notes from previous races and came up with a plan for the next morning. The first lap on the race track the next day, we were much quicker than we were the day before. The guys really dug in hard and got us a lot closer to where we needed to be for the race”

Their hard work paid off when Compton paced the oval in qualifying and laid down a fast lap of 31.590 seconds at a speed of 170.940 miles per hour, setting him up for an eighth place starting spot. “We had a pretty decent qualifying run and a decent race,” said Compton. “We never could get the truck exactly where we needed it, but we certainly got it a lot better.”

Compton’s Toyota was better due in part by smart pit calls by his Crew Chief. “Marcus threw a lot of different stuff at it and we got it better at times,” Compton said. “Going back and looking at it, we think we had a right front spring that gave up on us. But Marcus tried to keep up with the race track and kept making changes and making good pit calls, and kept us in a position that when we got it straightened out, we were going to come away with a decent run. And that’s what we did. He put us in a position to stay on the lead lap. When everyone started pitting, he made a great pit call to take one can of fuel betting on a caution, and sure enough, a caution came out. Once again, it was great pit calls on Marcus’ part.”

Compton was 11th in the 2009 Championship Title Chase heading into the EnjoyIllinois.com 225, and even though he slid a spot to 12th, he closed the gap on 10th. Compton is currently sitting 12th, just one point out of 11th and only four points out of the top-10.

“It wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for, but still come home 12th, that’s not a bad weekend,” Compton concluded.

- Wyler Racing Press Release