The Melon 23rd at the Paperclip
Martinsville, VA – October 27, 2012. Ross Chastain had high hopes heading into Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 200 at the Martinsville Speedway. Unfortunately the rookie driver never found the handle his JDI Farms Toyota and finished twenty-third behind winner Denny Hamlin.
Ross knew early in the first practice that his SS Green Light Racing Toyota did not have the same feel as it did when the Truck Series visited the tricky half-mile back in March. “Even after we unloaded and we weren’t very good, I thought we could get it and we threw everything at it, but nothing seemed to work.”
After running in the top fifteen in the first practice, Chastain qualified the JDI Farms No. 08 thirty-first with a lap of 20.21 seconds at over 93.88 mph on the tight, paperclip shaped half-mile track.
At the drop of the green, Ross made some progress in traffic working his way into the top twenty-five before the race was twenty laps old but without being able to roll through the corners as quick as he would like he found it difficult to break into the top-twenty.
“It wasn’t good, that’s for sure. The truck never felt the same as it did last time, that’s for sure,” Ross said. “We really struggled to carry speed through the center of the corner, especially the off the corner. It wasn’t a good race for us, I drove it as hard as I could every lap.”
During several caution periods the SS Green Light team would make adjustments to the JDI Farms Toyota, but the adjustments did not help the Ross find the added speed he needed to race up at the front of the field.
“We just struggled all weekend and never could quite get it right, we tried some different things but obviously didn’t work. Luckily we came out with a semi-clean race truck, we didn’t tear-it up too bad.”
"There was plenty of action all around the track. Lots of beating and banging even back in the back where I was, they were fighting for last, banging into each other," Ross said with a smile. “I really felt we were going to have a good run, I’d been waiting on this race for a while. The guys worked hard to give me a better truck, but we came up short.”
Ross remained sixteenth in the NCWTS point standings heading into next Friday night’s Winstar World Casino 350k at the Texas Motor Speedway.
For more information about SS Green Light Racing visit www.SSRacingonline.com or email pr@ssracingonline.com
|
|
|
| Get e-mail alerts from SS Green Light Racing. Just enter your e-mail address below and click subscribe. |
| Chris Cockrum | |
No Races Scheduled
|
|
 |
| Grant Galloway | |
No Races Scheduled
|
|
|
| David Starr | |
| 6.27.2013 |
| NASCAR Camping World Truck Series |
| Kentucky Speedway |
|
|
|
|
About
Ken Smith
