Monday
Chris Fontaine Nearly Tastes Victory At Daytona International Speedway
Press Release
Fontaine had qualified the No. 84 Glenden Enterprises Toyota Tundra 16th to start the 100 lap NextEra Energy Reasources 250.
At the start of the race, Fontaine quickly moved up from 16th to 10th in the first 12 laps. He held the tenth spot up to the first caution. The No. 84 Toyota Tundra truck ran strong throughout the race.
“We just stayed in line so that we wouldn’t go to the back. We missed the big wrecks. We missed that first one, so that was good,” Chris Fontaine said.
Fontaine was running 15th on the restart with 20 to go.
“We were just riding not really trying to do anything, and the plan was to wait ‘til the end and try to get Kyle Busch behind me. It finally worked out on one of those last restarts and everything started going good,” Fontaine said.
With 10 laps to go, Fontaine in the #84 and Kyle Busch behind him in the #18 moved to the outside line, and drafted all the way to the lead with five laps to go, but the pair started to slide back as the #18 began to overheat.
Fontaine was running third when he was hit from behind by another truck, in the wreck on lap 96.
“I could smell victory. It was just four laps away,” Chris Fontaine said.
He was credited with a 19th place finish.
His average running position was 13.65 for the race, and he is currently ranked 15th in the NCWTS 2011 points.
He also ran one of the fastest laps of the race, and was the second fastest driver on restarts.
Fontaine received a driver rating of 13th for the race.
He ran 71 laps in the top 15, and was on the lead lap every lap he ran.
“We were just riding until we got near the end. Then I got hooked up with Kyle Busch, and he started pushing me like he did at Talladega. He got me all sideways down the straightaway, pushing me as hard as he could, and we finally made up some ground on the outside and got the lead,” Fontaine said, adding,”I am proud of all the hard work the guys back at the shop have done to get us to this point.”
- Glenden Enterprises Press Release
Article Tags: Chris Fontaine, Chris Fontaine Inc., Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Kyle Busch, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NCWTS, Nextra Energy Resources 250, No. 84 Glenden Enterprises Toyota Tundra, Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
