Lebanon, TN – April 22, 2011. A top-ten finish for David Starr in the Bully Hill Vineyards 200 at the Nashville Superspeedway may have been just what the doctor ordered for the SS Green Light Racing team after misfortune struck the team in each of the first four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events to start the 2011 season. Friday night on the concrete track just south of the Music City, Starr proved that with some good luck, the team could run upfront by surging from mid-pack to eighth over the last quarter of the race.
After inclement weather delayed the start of Friday’s on-track activities Starr was solid in practice posting the eleventh best time before qualifying the Zachry Toyota thirteenth in the thirty-six truck field with a lap of 31.03 seconds at 154.61 mph around the mile and one-third track.
At the drop of the green flag David would settle into the twelfth position as the trucks chased pole sitter Kyle Busch. David would hold position through the caution-free first third of the race before dropping to pit road for tires and Sunoco racing gas just past the fifty-lap mark. Shortly after pit stops were complete, a caution for debris would bunch the field and Starr would battle for the fifteenth position until the second caution flew on lap 76.
Several trucks including David came to pit-road to top off under the caution and would now have to come back through the field. On lap 83, David was coming hard on the outside when several trucks got three wide directly in front of him, bunching the field and leaving David in the middle of a second three-wide right behind heading into turn one. David and Max Papis made contact heading into the turn and for one of the few times this season some good luck shined down on the SS Green Light team as Starr came out with the position and minimal damage to his Zachry Tundra and the No. 81 emerged in fifteenth place.
The third caution came out on lap 103 for debris and the Jason Miller led crew took extra time to be sure the damage to the truck would not hurt David over the last fifty laps. He restarted in sixteenth and just three laps after the green flew again, David found more good luck just missing the spinning truck of Austin Dillon.
With 38 laps to go, David was in fourteenth place and quickly made his way to twelfth before getting caught three wide and dropping a couple spots on lap 115. He would work his way around Elliot Sadler, and Parker Klingerman by the time the fifth caution flew with fifteen laps to go when lady luck shined on David a third time as Nick Hoffman was spun by Cole Whitt directly in front the No. 81. David missed Hoffman’s truck by just inches.
With ten laps to go, David was shown in the eleventh position and he would stay up on the wheel charging around Justin Lofton and Justin Johnson working his way to ninth when Papis spun with five to go causing the sixth and final caution.
Busch would battle Ron Hornaday up front as David worked his way past Craig Goess on the inside with just two laps remaining to finish eighth, his second top-ten of the season.
The finish is exactly what the SS Green Light team needed to get positive momentum for the rest of the season, with Starr jumping four places in the 2011 NCWTS drivers point standings to twelfth after five of twenty-five races.
The NCWTS teams have several weeks off before the Lucas Oil 200 at Dover International Speedway on May 13th.
For more information on SS Green Light Racing visit www.SSRacingonline.com or email: pr@ssracingonline.com.
