Some watched Michael Waltrip celebrate in victory lane while remembering an old colleague, friend and boss. Others asked Elliott Sadler what he could have done differently coming to the finish line.
Then there was Clay Rogers who stood back and watched it all, maybe the only one aware of the personal accomplishment he had just achieved. Rogers didn’t have people running towards him to ask him what he thought about the NextEra Energy Resources 250.
Then again, most have never heard his name before.
But heading into the second race of the Camping World Truck Series 2011 season Rogers will be in a position that everyone does know: point leader. It comes after a wild night in Daytona where the 31-year-old finished third behind Waltrip and Sadler.
“To be honest with you, my heart just dropped when you said that,” Rogers chucked afterward.
“I hadn’t even thought about that. Our plans coming into Daytona were not to compete in the full Truck Series schedule this year. We’ll have to talk to that man right there after tonight. But, you know, our team is a very small team. We’re based out of Cerro Gordo, North Carolina an hour on the other side of Rockingham. We’re definitely going to run the first five races and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
The first five races, that’s it. Nothing beats getting off to quick start and earning your career best finish and being the point leader. Sure, it may only be for a week and Rogers won’t win the championship, but it doesn’t hurt in trying to gain attention.
It might sound as though Rogers had an easy night, yet it was far from it. The driver of the No. 92 Action Gator Tire/Fleet Tire HQ.com Chevrolet for RBR Motorsports survived both problems on the track and in the pits.
It started in qualifying; Rogers had to earn his way into the race on speed. Not having been locked in the field considering his never run a full season before. In fact, Rogers only has 21 career starts that span over four seasons.
Once the race started, which would be one of attrition, Rogers didn’t look like a rookie. With six cautions for 24 laps as well as six different leaders – including Rogers – no one could exhale until the checkered flag flew.
“Our truck shut off halfway down the back straightaway and again in the middle of turns three and four coming with one to go for that restart,” said Rogers.
“We were trying to stretch mileage because I made a mistake on pit road and missed my pit stall. We were trying to overcome that. Stretch fuel miles a little bit. We were set up for qualifying. We were jetted a lot leaner than probably a large percentage of the field. We were getting better fuel mileage. I think we had enough fuel to get to the end. Riding around under caution on these high banks was making it run away from the pickup.”
It was during that pit stop where Rogers received a penalty and had to restart at the back of the field. His fuel can got stuck in the truck and when Rogers left his pit stall so did the equipment, which is a no-no.
Rogers though took it in stride and said the penalty actually saved him and turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. The reason? It put him right in front of Kyle Busch, who isn’t too shabby on the restrictor plate tracks.
The two went straight to the front of the field.
“It was really an up-and-down night, to say the least,” Rogers said afterwards.
“We weren’t a very good pusher. If we didn’t have somebody behind us, we really couldn’t go anywhere or even stay up in the pack the way we needed to. There were times in the race where Joey Coulter and a couple other guys, Michael Waltrip one time was pushing me pretty good, we could make headway then. We seemed to be a decent leader.”
Rogers continued, “Kyle [Busch] said before the restart, ‘We’ll push you on this start.’ I knew if a hole opened up, I better go with it or he was going to go with somebody else. Luckily a hole opened up off of two and we carried a huge run off the back straightaway. That was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been a part of. It was pretty wild.”
As wild as the ‘Big One’ which came out with just four laps remaining.
“At that point we didn’t have anybody behind us and had kind of fell away from the draft about 10 or 12 car lengths and had just picked up the 10 truck [Jennifer Jo Cobb] behind us,” he said.
“That’s when all chaos broke loose there. We were fortunate to have enough time to get slowed down and pick our way through there. It was a couple close calls, especially with the 3 truck [Austin Dillon]. Almost centered him. Luckily, once again, there were several times tonight in our race that things that looked horrible, ended up benefitting us in the end. I guess luck played a large part in it as well.”
Yes, Clay Rogers stood there and watched everyone else run off toward other drivers and potential stories. To some, including himself, he was just lucky. Sometimes though it’s better to be lucky than good. And if Rogers can continue to gain experience in the series he’ll end up being both one day.
But for now, he’ll quietly enjoy being the CWTS point leader that no one knows.
