JUSTIN LOFTON QUICK FACTS
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Smith’s Food and Drug Stores 350
September 25, 2010
Last time out… Lofton and the No. 7 Red Horse Racing team added another 11th place finish to their 2010 stats last Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Lofton started the 175-lap race from the 10th position and battled within the top-10 throughout, before crossing the finish line in the 11th position.
Off-road roots… Lofton is taking advantage of the stop out West this week by embarking on a little nostalgia. Lofton, who honed his skills racing off-road machines before transitioning to stock cars, will head to the desert on Thursday and climb behind the wheel of a MasterCraft Safety/Rockstar Energy Trophy Truck. The NCWTS rookie won’t have all of the fun, since crew chief Mark Rette, as well as SPEED cameras will be along for the ride. Lofton’s off-road excursion will be taped for an upcoming pre-race segment on NCWTS Setup.
Around town… Lofton will join other Red Horse Racing team members on Friday at the Nellis Air Force Base, visiting the Red Horse Squadron of the United States Air Force. The No. 7 team will also run the Squadron’s decal on the B post of the truck on Saturday. Following the morning visit, Lofton will head to the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino for an open autograph session. The session will begin at 7PM and run through 8:30 PM.
Intermediate tracks, advanced finishes… Lofton will make his first start in the 1.5-mile Las Vegas race track this Saturday, but he has a strong record on other intermediate tracks to his credit. Over the last month, Lofton scored a fifth place run at Chicagoland, followed by an 11th at Kentucky.
Justin Lofton on racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway “I’m excited about going to Las Vegas this week. We have a lot going on leading up to the race and it will be fun to take Mark out to the desert in the off-road truck. The visit to the Air Force base will also be exciting. It is always humbling to meet members of the military. As far as the actual race, Las Vegas Motor Speedway is another track I haven’t raced on before, but I can always rely on my crew to prepare fast trucks, and we’ve been solid on other mile and a half tracks, so it should be a good weekend.”
Crew Chief Mark Rette on Las Vegas Motor Speedway “I’m looking forward to going to Las Vegas. It’s another track Justin hasn’t been to. We’ll use the first part of the first practice to get him acclimated to the track. We’ll approach it with a conservative setup until he gets comfortable and go from there. We have a lot of fun things going on this week before the race. I have been dying to get into an off-road truck with Justin. The first time I heard about him being from off-road, it was something I always wanted to do, and we’ve been trying to get out there for a while.”
Equipment Information Lofton will race chassis RHR123 at Las Vegas this weekend. It is the same truck that he qualified third with at Darlington, and finished fifth in at Pocono.