Saturday, March 31, 2012
RAM PR
Martinsville Speedway
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kroger 250
Post-Race Quotes
Parker Kligerman (No. 29 Cooper Standard RAM) Finished 11th “The guys on this No. 29 Cooper Standard RAM worked real hard on the off weeks and we had a great truck. I mean, it was what I thought from practice. I thought we were a seventh to 10th-place truck which was exactly what we were. We couldn’t figure out really how to get the thing through the center. The conditions were a little different from practice; there was a bit more heat and I think that added into it. We fought all day and that last 50 laps, we just had to make a call if we really wanted to go for it or not. We went for it and it didn’t work out.”
THE MAIN THING THAT YOU STRUGGLED WITH WAS TIGHTNESS IN THE CENTER OF THE CORNER? “Tightness in the center which ruins your drive off because you never get it pointed. You’re trying to turn and drive off all at an angle which just kills your lateral grip. We had a respectable race going, no doubt about it. It was a good point’s day. We just got in a sandwich there Martinsville style and then our race was in recovery mode.”
YOU WERE INVOLVED IN A SKIRMISH DURING THE CLOSING LAPS OF THE RACE. WHAT HAPPENED? “I was in the bottom line as we went into Turn 3. I gave the guy about a foot between us which I normally do on the restart just for any sort of check-ups. The guy behind me must not have braked and pushed me straight into the guy in front of me. I think it was the 7 (John King). We went under him basically and it knocked the hood up. We had to pit.”
Doug Randolph (Crew Chief, No. 29 Cooper Standard RAM) “Reasonably content with that finish, just didn’t have a truck quite good enough to compete today. I mean we could make good lap times, but the truck was just using too much racetrack to really pass and be raceable. We’ll learn from it and hopefully the next time we come back here, we’ll have a little bit better piece. We got torn up and had other issues and still finished 11th. I don’t guess we can complain too much. I’m sure it was a tough day of racing for Parker because it was hard racing other people. I think that we’ve got a package that will work. We just struggle with getting it to turn in the center most of the time that we were here and really didn’t quite hit on that one thing to fix it. I think we’ll go back, work on that and give us something to focus on and test with. We’ll see if we can make it better.”
