Catchfence

Miguel Paludo - Photo Credit: John Harrelson / Getty Images for NASCAR

WINDING DOWN: With only two races left in the 2011 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) is a welcome site for Miguel Paludo and the No. 7 Duroline Brakes and Components Toyota Tundra team. Despite a rough few weeks, Paludo and the team are ready to come back and taste the sweet success they found at TMS in the spring. Only five month ago, Paludo earned his first top-10 finish at the 1.5-mile track racing his way from a 22nd-place starting position to an eighth-place finishing position.

LAP LEADER: Paludo has led laps at four different track thus far in 2011. Paludo paced the field for the first time in his NASCAR Truck Series career at Martinsville Speedway in the spring, then followed that by leading a lap at Kansas Speedway in June. Then the Red Horse Racing driver led 10 laps at Texas Motor Speedway on his way to earning an eighth-place finish and followed up that performance by leading three laps to a Red Horse Racing two-three finish, where Paludo currenlty owns his career-best Truck Series finish of third at Michigan International Speedway.

LUCKY NUMBER 13: Thus far in 2011, Paludo has recored 13 of the fastest laps ran at various tracks, these were 13 laps where Paludo was faster than any other truck on the race track.

CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 7 team will unload chassis No. 002. This truck last saw on-track action at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Paludo experienced mechanical issues and was forced to retire from the event early.

PREVIOUS RACE RECAP: Last week at Martinsville Speedway, Paludo earned a 16th-place finish. Passing was very difficult at the 0.526-mile short track. Paludo made his way up to the ninth position before a late-race pit stop for fuel mired him back in the field. Paludo was unable to make his way back into the top-10 before the checkered flag flew.

Miguel Paludo

You had a really strong run at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year. What is it you like about Texas?

It’s a fast track, with a lot of banking and you really feel the speed. I always run well there and I hope this time is no different.

When you were in high school you came to the United States from Brazil to study abroad and live in Texas. What was your first impression of the state? Do you keep in touch with the family you stayed with during that time?

The accent is amazing! It was really hard to understand everybody at first, but once I got use to it, it helped me a lot. I lived in a small city about two hours away from Dallas and had a lot of fun. I still talk to my “American family”; actually my youngest “brother” at that time is already a father!

Red Horse Racing (RHR)

Founded in 2005 by former Mobil Corporation executive Tom DeLoach and NASCAR veteran Jeff Hammond, Red Horse Racing aims to be a professional racing team that strives for excellence on and off the race track. Red Horse Racing hopes to build and maintain solid, mutual relationships with its partners to win races and championships and to represent itself in a professional manner. The team has five victories and six poles in its brief existence. DeLoach and Hammond also own Performance Instruction Training (PIT), the number one pit crew training center in the world that also has many corporate training options that include team-building, lean manufacturing, motorsports demonstrations and more.

- Red Horse Racing Press Release