Catchfence

Bristol, TN – August 24, 2011. Thunder Valley provided plenty of action on Wednesday evening as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series once again provided plenty of mid-week fireworks for nearly 55,000 race fans with plenty of close racing, wrecks and retaliation. The action caused no less than nine cautions and left plenty of tempers overheating.

SS Green Light Racing’s David Starr was one of the fortunate ones to avoid most of the drama on track until the very last lap and was able to bring home the AdvoCare No. 81 Toyota Tundra home just shy of another top-ten behind winner Kevin Harvick.

David qualified fifteenth 15.99 seconds at 119.98 mph the Worlds fastest half-mile track in the afternoon qualifying session but didn’t waste any time charging towards the top-ten after the drop of the green flag in the 200-lap race climbing to eleventh place by the time the second caution flew on lap 32.

Pit strategy would take over as half a dozen trucks came to pit road during the early caution while many of the leaders including Starr stayed on the track moving him into the top-ten while hoping for another caution to come at the right time to make the end of the race.

During the third caution on lap 58, SS Green Light crew chief Jason Miller called Starr to the pits for what was expected to be the only pit stop of the night. “I knew we would be a little short, but you always get plenty of caution laps at Bristol,” said Miller. “Track position is so important, you have to make the right calls on fuel.”

Restarting from 17th, Starr again made a charge toward the top-ten and was nearly collected when Miguel Paludo lost an engine directly in front of the No. 81 on lap 90. David used his experience to stay out of trouble and continued to march back toward the top-ten through the mid section of the race.

Several more cautions flew and many of the crew chiefs figured they would be able to make it to the finish. On lap 172 the caution flew for the sixth time and during the pause in the action, several trucks ran out of fuel or were experiencing low fuel pressure. Miller did not want to take any chances, so he called Starr to the pits and giving up eleventh place to top-off with Sunoco racing gas. Several others did the same and David only lost a couple positions on track, but the AdvoCare No. 81 was safe to go to the end of the 200-lap event with fresher tires than most of the trucks ahead of him.

“When I saw those trucks having troubles with fuel under caution, I decided not to take any chances and we called David in for tires and fuel,” Miller said. “I figured we could get back to 8th or 9th from that point. We just don’t get the same mileage with this new fuel than we got in the past and I could not take a chance of running David out.”

Over the last 20 laps David made a strong run back towards the front moving into tenth with less than ten laps from the checkers. He was challenging Elliot Sadler for ninth on the final lap when his truck got loose and he was forced to check-up loosing momentum and giving up the tenth spot to Parker Klingerman whom he had passed under the green a few laps before. The AdvoCare Tundra took the checkers just outside of the top-ten in eleventh.

Starr holds eleventh in the NCWTS driver’s standings; now 22 points behind defending series Champion Todd Bodine who is in tenth.

The NCWTS teams will return to the track on September 2nd for the Atlanta 200 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

For more information on SS Green Light Racing visit www.SSRacingonline.com.

- SS Green Light Racing Press Release