After several weeks away from the track David Starr and the SS Green Light Racing team are ready to get back to racing as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series travels to the shortest track on the schedule. Starr has had an eventful start to the 2011 campaign with the No. 81 Zachry Toyota getting caught up in several incidents during the first three races of the season. The team recovered nicely at Darlington to earn a top-ten finish and move Starr back into the top-fifteen in the drivers point standings.
Having raced at the track nineteen times throughout his thirteen-year career in the NCWTS, Starr is no stranger to the tight little half-mile track in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains known for it’s bump and run action. It has also been one of David’s most successful tracks, he won the Kroger 250 back in 2006 while accumulating nine top-ten finishes including a seventh place finish last fall in the SS Green Light Racing Zachry Tundra.
“We are really looking forward to going to Martinsville,” explained Starr. “We’ve run good there over the years and having Jason Miller as my Crew Chief and our engineer Slash (Matt Faulkner) onboard I feel really good about the direction of this team. Even though we’ve had bad luck we’ve had really fast trucks the first three races. If we can kind of shake this monkey off our back I think we can have a great run in our Zachry Toyota.”
“Last fall we ran good there; our Tundra was fast, it handled well and I’m looking forward to coming back to Martinsville,” Starr continued. “I love racing everywhere, but the Martinsville short track is one of my favorites.”
With all his experience, Starr knows what it takes to go fast at the tricky half-mile track, “You’ve got to have a really good handling truck that has to really rotate well though the center with some great forward bite. It’s a great short track race with a lot of beating and banging.”
Miller was Starr’s car chief at Red Horse Racing in the 2006 Kroger 250 when David lead 121 of the 250 laps in rout to his fourth career victory, “Not only did we win the spring race that year, we finished second in the fall and we should have won it too.”
“We have always run good there and with Jason and all the guys on this SS Green Light crew, I think we have a lot of momentum on our side. I feel our team is just as capable as any other team to have a great performance and I’m looking forward to getting there.”
“I believe everybody at SS Green Light Racing is excited and enthused about the season. We’re going to keep doing what we are doing and hopefully our luck will change because we have had fast trucks that have handled well we just need a little luck on our side.”
In nineteen career NCWTS starts, David has logged more laps (4299) at the Martinsville Speedway than any other track in the series. He has one win, three top-five and nine top-ten finishes. David’s average start is a 17.4 and his average finish is 13.8, completing 98.4% of the laps he has run in the previous races.
The Kroger 250 is the 249th consecutive NCWTS start for the SS Green Light Racing team and the 269th career start for Starr in the series.
There are 36 trucks on the preliminary entry list for the Kroger 250.
Practice for the NCWTS Kroger 250 will be Friday, April 1st from 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. and 2:10 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. Qualifying will be Saturday. April 2nd at 10:40 a.m. and the Kroger 250 will be shown live on SPEED TV at 2:00 p.m. All times Eastern. It will also be broadcast live via radio worldwide on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and on SIRIUS Satellite Radio NASCAR Channel 128-XM104.
Zachry Holdings, Inc. is engaged in the planning, building and renewing of the world’s most critical industrial facilities. As one of the largest direct-hire, merit-shop constructors in the United States, Zachry provides a range of engineering, construction and maintenance services to top industrial companies. The 85-year-old, privately held organization is based in San Antonio. Visit www.zhi.com for more information.
For more information about SS Green Light Racing visit www.SSRacingonline.com or email pr@ssracingonline.com.
