Standings Leaderboard Continues To Stay Tight

Standings Leaderboard Continues To Stay Tight With Nine Races To Go

 

A three-way, 10-point battle for the lead in the NASCAR Nationwide Series driver standings makes Atlanta Motor Speedway another key chapter in the quest for this season’s championship.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has led for the last four weeks, but his advantage has slowly trickled away during that span. He was 12 points in front of Peachtree City’s favorite son Reed Sorenson four races ago; Stenhouse now has a precarious, five-point lead over second-place Elliott Sadler. Sorenson is 10 points back in third.

Stenhouse has been racking up bonus points like no other competitor. His 21 bonus points – for leading a lap and leading the most laps in a race – top the series and are the main reason he’s held onto his standings lead. Sadler has nine bonus points while Sorenson checks in with eight.

Stenhouse Jr. is the best out of the three in both pre-race Driver Rating (88.1) and Average Running Position (15.5) at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Sorenson is hoping for a home-track turnaround. In six NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at Atlanta he’s been plagued by four did not finishes (DNF), including an accident that ended his chances last year. A 10th-place result in 2009 is his best finish to date.

A huge Atlanta Falcons fan, Sorenson is ready for some football. He’ll be at practice Tuesday afternoon and will attend their game against the Baltimore Ravens Thursday night with his No. 32 crew chief Trent Owens and car chief Shannon Rursch. The group will be guests of Falcons’ GM Thomas Dimitroff and have the opportunity to join the team on the field for pre-game warm-ups. The No. 32 team will return the favor on Saturday, hosting three Falcon Pro Bowlers – fullback Ovie Mughelli, running back Michael Turner and wide receiver Roddy White – for the race. Prior to the game on Thursday, Sorenson will host his annual golf tournament which benefits Speedway Children’s Charities.

 

Joe Gibbs Racing Setting New Standards Of Success In The Series

 

When it comes to winning and having success in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, one would be hard pressed to name another team in the past decade that has done more than Joe Gibbs Racing. Off the top, 2009 series champion – and the series new all-time wins leader Kyle Busch – leads the way in the team’s flagship No. 18 Toyota. Busch beat JGR teammate Joey Logano by .019 seconds last Friday night at Bristol, the closest margin of victory (MOV) in series history at Bristol and the seventh-closest MOV in series history. It broke the tie he’d held with Mark Martin and also became the first series driver to 50 wins. Interestingly, Busch has yet to win in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition at Atlanta.

The No. 18 Toyota also leads the owner standings by 50 points over the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. Joe Gibbs Racing is going for its fourth consecutive owner championship, which would be a new series record.

Brian Scott, who’s ninth in the driver standings, is coming off his first top-10 finish since May at Charlotte with a 10th-place result at Bristol. Scott, an Idaho native, will run a special paint scheme this weekend on the No. 11 Toyota highlighting Boise State University. The Broncos open their season against Georgia, also on Saturday.

And another young driver will make his team debut with Joe Gibbs Racing as Ryan Truex, the two-time NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion, will be in the No. 20 Toyota that finished second to Busch at Bristol. Truex, 19, who began the season with Pastrana-Waltrip Racing, recently signed with JGR for six, late-season races starting with Atlanta. This will be his series track debut there. He’s also slated to run at Richmond, Chicago, Dover, Kansas, and Phoenix.

 

Almirola Leading The Way For JR Motorsports This Season

 

A slow start for Aric Almirola season hasn’t derailed his plans of achieving a successful year and making the most of his opportunity with owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports.

Though Almirola has been ranked in the top 10 in points since the second race of the season he didn’t register his first top-five finish until Chicagoland, where he was fourth after capturing his first series pole since 2007.

Lack of consistency has kept the No. 88 team from challenging the leaders in the standings – until now. Almirola and crew chief Tony Eury Sr. have seemingly found what was missing, which has equaled five top-five finishes in the last seven races and a more manageable 58-point deficit to the standings leader. Also included in that span was an eighth-place at Watkins Glen; his best-ever finish on a road course.

He’s had one previous series start at Atlanta finishing 27th in 2007. He’ll team with Jamie McMurray, the defending Atlanta winner. McMurray will drive the No. 7 Chevrolet. He has two wins at Atlanta, including his first career NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in 2002.

 

NASCAR Nationwide Series Etc.

 

Upcoming milestones: two-time series champion Kevin Harvick will be making his 275th series start and also goes for his 200th series top-10 finish. Kevin Lepage will attempt to make his 300th series start. Justin Allgaier will make his 100th series start. Aric Almirola will be making his 175th NASCAR national series start. Joe Nemechek will be going for his 75th series top-five finish. … 2010 series champion Brad Keselowski will return to the No. 22 team this week after being out of the car for four weeks due to an injury suffered in a testing accident.

Trucks : Top Points Contenders Firing On All Eight Cylinders

8/31/11
Top Points Contenders Firing On All Eight Cylinders

 

Bristol Motor Speedway might have been a “wild card” race in some years but not this one. With one exception, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship contenders head for Atlanta Motor Speedway pretty much the same way they entered Thunder Valley.

Three of the four – headed by leader Johnny Sauter, who finished second to Kevin Harvick – finished among the top five.

Sauter gained two points on runner up James Buescher; three points on Timothy Peters. His lead over Buescher is seven points with nine races remaining in the 2011 season.

Odd man out in Bristol was Austin Dillon, who held the standings lead two races ago but trails Sauter by 29 points after consecutive finishes outside the top 20. Dillon ran out of fuel and finished three laps behind in 23rd place.

For now, anyway, it’s a three-driver race.

•           Sauter, solid after an up and down mid-season, has scored 14 bonus points overall, most of any competitor.

•           Buescher’s amazing, post-Phoenix DNQ streak continues. He leads series points chasers with eight top-five and 12 top-10 finishes.

•           Peters, whose Red Horse Racing team owner Tom DeLoach is a native of Statesboro, Ga. and sits on his alma mater Georgia Tech’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Advisory Board, has erased 32 points of a 49-point deficit in four races.

Three drivers gained positions at Bristol: Peters fourth to third; Joey Coulter eighth to sixth and Parker Kligerman ninth to eighth. Dillon (fourth) and Matt Crafton (seventh) lost a spot while four-time champion Ron Hornaday Jr. (ninth) dropped two.

 

Newman, Turner Motorsports Celebrate Life Of Fallen Comrade

 

Ryan Newman and Turner Motorsports will celebrate the life of outdoors buddy, fellow competitor and employee Beau Slocumb through a special paint scheme arranged by the team and sponsor Realtree.

Newman’s No. 08 Chevrolet will be wrapped in camouflage décor – a tribute to Slocumb, whose passion beyond NASCAR was hunting and fishing. The 26-year-old former Legends and ARCA competitor lost his life to cancer earlier this year.

“He was a good man and it’s just as simple as that,” said Newman, winner of the Atlanta 200 in 2008. “I had asked Ed (Clark, Atlanta Motor Speedway president) for a good place to go fishing in the area and he said ‘why don’t you come down to the Slocumb house?’” The two fished and became good friends.

Slocumb was employed by Turner working on its truck teams. “It was his dream to race a truck,” said Newman noting that his friend’s name will be stenciled above the passenger window.

Here is a link for the Slocumb/Ryan Newman truck paint scheme: http://bit.ly/slocumbpaint.

 

Bodine, Third Title Likely Gone, Settles Into Spoiler Role

 

Todd Bodine entered the 2011 season with the high expectation of a third NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. Those dreams were quickly dashed as Bodine’s performance, along with that of Germain Racing, declined significantly from a year ago.

Bodine went through the opening seven races with a single top-five finish and four of 19th or worse. Short on sponsorship, Germain merged its NCWTS operation with that of Randy Moss Motorsports six races ago.

Now driving the No. 5 Toyota, Bodine has rebounded somewhat. He remains winless and an uncharacteristic 10th in the standings. But beginning with a 10th at Iowa Speedway in July, Bodine accumulated a trio of top-10 finishes and nothing worse than 12th.

A championship may be out of reach but Bodine’s performance at Bristol – a season-best matching third – suggests the Bodine-Moss-Germain combination can approach the final third of the campaign as contender for wins. A spoiler’s role isn’t what Bodine might have predicted back in February but it will do for now.

 

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Etc.

 

Four previous Atlanta winners are in this week’s field: Bodine, Newman, Kyle Busch and Ron Hornaday Jr. Busch is the only multiple winner with four, the last in 2009. … Nine of 11 Atlanta races have been decided by 0.971 seconds or less. The closest finish, 0.008 seconds separating Hornaday and Bobby Labonte, came in March 2005. It remains the series’ fifth-closest decision. … Harvick’s Bristol win makes Kevin Harvick Inc. the first NCWTS team to win five or more races in four consecutive seasons. … The cast of TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” will be special guests of Buescher and his fiancé Kris Turner. This will be the cast’s first appearance at a NASCAR event.

 

Harvick wins at Bristol for third straight trucks win

Harvick wins at Bristol for third straight trucks win

By Jared Turner

Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(August 24, 2011)

BRISTOL , Tenn.—Kevin Harvick doesn’t make a ton of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series appearances. His competitors are probably glad.

Entered in a third straight truck race for the first time in 2011, Harvick notched his third straight victory with a convincing performance in Wednesday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Harvick, riding the momentum of wins at Pocono (Aug. 7) and last weekend at Michigan , pulled away on a final restart with 10 laps left to score a relatively comfortable win.

Points leader Johnny Sauter surged past Todd Bodine on the late restart to take second and stretch his advantage over James Buescher to seven points.

Bodine finished third, while Buescher and Timothy Peters completed the top five.

While Harvick celebrated another win, his chief adversary—three-time defending Bristol race winner Kyle Busch—finished behind the wall with a torn-up truck.

And Busch wasn’t at all happy about the circumstances that led to his early departure.

Battling with Elliott Sadler in the top five on Lap 99 of 200, Busch hit the wall hard with the right front when his Toyota appeared to cut up into Sadler.

Upset about the contact, Busch nursed his damaged truck slowly around the track and waited for Sadler to come back around before sending the Virginia native into a spin.

In postrace interviews, Busch took a verbal shot at Sadler, who was driving for Joe Denette Motorsports but more often competes for Kevin Harvick Inc.—the organization co-owned by Busch’s chief rival for the truck series’ owners’ title.

"Where does his paycheck come from?” Busch asked rhetorically when asked about the contact from Sadler. “We were racing earlier tonight and I pulled a slide job on him and he ran into me three times after that. Then got clear of him for a while and on that restart there I was trying to slide him and get up to the top. The spotter said I was clear and I was clear at the time. Maybe I was too late. He wrecked us and I'm not going to put up with it."

Standing in victory lane, Harvick scoffed at the notion that Sadler’s KHI affiliation had anything to do with the Busch scrum.

“That’s just Kyle (upset) because Kyle didn’t win,” Harvick said. “Elliott Sadler wasn’t even driving my truck tonight. You can’t fix a crybaby and he’s just a crybaby.”

Sadler, who started from the pole, led early and recovered to finish ninth, denied any ill-intentions toward Busch.

“I didn’t even have time to check up or anything,” Sadler said. “He just wrecked himself.

“I just wish he’d watch the tape and understand what happened before he came back and retaliated.”

The war of words aside, Harvick’s night couldn’t have gone much better.

After taking the lead from Jason White on a Lap 98 restart, the team owner/driver never trailed again as he showed the way for the remaining 103 laps.

Harvick credited a fast stop by his crew under caution on Lap 32 for getting him the track position to win. Harvick restarted sixth but was first among drivers who had pitted. He then needed fewer than 70 laps to reach the front.

“They had a smoking fast pit stop,” said Harvick, who gained four spots on pit road. “That was really the key moment in the race for us.”

Ron Hornaday’s disappointing season continued as the four-time champion spun off Turn 2 and hit the inside wall on the entrance to Turn 3 to bring out the race’s first caution on Lap 10. Hornaday finished 24th.

Harvick wins at Bristol for third straight trucks win

Harvick wins at Bristol for third straight trucks win

By Jared Turner

Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(August 24, 2011)

BRISTOL , Tenn.—Kevin Harvick doesn’t make a ton of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series appearances. His competitors are probably glad.

Entered in a third straight truck race for the first time in 2011, Harvick made it three straight victories with a convincing performance in Wednesday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Harvick, riding the momentum of wins at Pocono (Aug. 7) and last weekend at Michigan , pulled away on a final restart with 10 laps left to score a relatively comfortable victory.

Points leader Johnny Sauter surged past Todd Bodine on the late restart to take second. Bodine finished third, while James Buescher and Timothy Peters completed the top five.

O'Reilly 200 Winner: Kevin Harvick

Race Fast Facts
Bristol Motor Speedway
14th Annual O'Reilly 200
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Wed, August 24, 2011 @ 10:00 PM Eastern
Race Winner: Kevin Harvick(i)
Age: 35
Team : No. 2 - Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet
Owner: Delana Harvick
Crew Chief: Bruce Cook
Kevin Harvick(i) won the 14th Annual O'Reilly 200, his 12th victory in 112 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.
Harvick has now won at Bristol in all three of NASCAR's national series (NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Camping World Truck). He has also done it at Michigan, Martinsville, Phoenix and Atlanta.
This is his third victory and fifth top-10 finish in 2011.
This is his first victory and fourth top-10 finish in five races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Johnny Sauter (second) posted his first top-10 finish in four races at Bristol Motor Speedway.  It is his 10th top-10 finish in 2011.
Todd Bodine (third) posted his fifth top-10 finish in seven races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Joey Coulter (sixth) was the highest finishing rookie.

O'Reilly 200 Pole Winner: Elliott Sadler

Qualifying Fast Facts
Bristol Motor Speedway
14th Annual O'Reilly 200
Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Wed, August 24, 2011 @ 05:23 PM Eastern
Keystone Light Pole Winner:  Elliott Sadler
Age: 36
Team : No. 24 - AM FM Energy/Pellet & Wood Stoves Chevrolet
Owner: Joe Denette
Crew Chief: Ernie Cope
 Elliott Sadler won the Keystone Light Pole Award for the 14th Annual O'Reilly 200 with a lap of 15.650 seconds, 122.607 mph.
This is his second pole in 18 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. His first pole came last year at Pocono Raceway, an event he won.
This is his first pole and seventh top-10 start in 2011.
Nelson Piquet Jr.  (second) posted his career-best start, and 12th top-10 start of 2011. 
Ron Hornaday Jr. (third) posted his eighth top-10 start at Bristol Motor Speedway.  It is his 13th in 16 races this season.

Peters, Red Horse Riding Mid-Season Momentum To Title Contention

NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES

 

Peters, Red Horse Riding Mid-Season Momentum To Title Contention

 

Red Horse Racing hasn’t gotten the headlines accorded NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points leader Johnny Sauter and his ThorSport Racing organization. But make no mistake – Tom DeLoach’s seven-year-old Toyota outfit is a serious championship contender in 2011.

Lead driver Timothy Peters, winner at Lucas Oil Raceway last month, is a close fourth in the standings and with his third top-five finish in his last four races, is closing fast. He trails Sauter by 12 points heading to Wednesday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Peters finished eighth at Bristol a year ago.

 “I still feel it is too early to be thinking about the championship (but) it is always something that is on our minds,” said Peters, who finished second to Kevin Harvick in last weekend’s VFW 200 at Michigan International Speedway. “We have to race each race and let the points take care of themselves.

“Our goal is to take home the hardware in Homestead but we are just taking one race at a time.”

Since regrouping after a 16th-place finish in Kentucky, Peters and crew chief Butch Hylton have accumulated four top 10s. “Since then, we really feel like our program is going in the right direction,” said Peters.

Peters’ teammate and Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Miguel Paludo also is on a bit of a hot streak. He finished a career-best third in Michigan – Paludo’s third top five of the year – and looks forward to celebrating the one-year anniversary of his NASCAR Camping World Truck debut at Bristol.

“I think as we get to some of the tracks that I have been to before like Bristol we will be even stronger,” said Paludo.

Red Horse Racing debuted in 2005 with Brandon Whitt posting owner DeLoach’s first victory at Memphis. The team has won five times with David Starr’s 2006 fourth-place the best of three championship finishes among the top 10.

 

Busch, Harvick Owner Championship Dead-Heat Battle Continues At Bristol

 

Wednesday night’s Bristol Motor Speedway face-off between Kyle Busch Motorsports and Kevin Harvick Inc. marks the third race in succession – but likely not the deciding round – in the two organizations’ neck and neck battle for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Owners’ Championship.

Harvick got the better of Busch for the second week in a row in Michigan, a victory that allowed his No. 2 Chevrolet team to pull even in owner points with Busch’s No. 18 Toyota group. Each has scored 583 points, although KBM remains the official leader by virtue of six wins to KHI’s three.

Give the nod – at least this week – to Busch, who recently has been unbeatable in all three of NASCAR’s national series over Bristol’s 0.533-mile concrete high banks. Busch has won three consecutive truck races there and a fourth victory would match Brendan Gaughan’s series record set at Texas Motor Speedway in 2002-03.

Harvick has won in NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series competition in Thunder Valley but he – and his trucks – remain winless. He came within a lap and a few feet of victory in 2003 before a tire failure while leading sent Harvick’s Chevrolet into the frontstretch wall. He’ll bring three trucks to Bristol for himself, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Elliott Sadler. Busch will add Josh Richards to KBM’s lineup.

 

Sauter Regains Points Lead But Little Comfort As Margins Narrow

 

For now anyway, the stars appear aligned for Johnny Sauter’s run to a NASCAR Camping World Truck title. Sauter is back in the top spot despite spotting his rivals a six-point penalty at Pocono and an accident-punctuated 13th-place performance at Michigan International Speedway.

Sauter bypassed one-week leader Austin Dillon, who was collected in a late-race accident, finished 22nd and dropped from first to third.

For Sauter, the outcome may only be delaying the inevitable. Just 12 points cover the top four championship contenders Sauter, James Buescher, Dillon and Peters.

Buescher was Michigan’s biggest winner. A fourth-place finish pushed Buescher to second in the standings, five points off the lead. Buescher’s 11th consecutive top-10 finish maintains his bid to become the first NASCAR Camping World Truck champion to have missed a race – his failure to qualify at Phoenix in February. 

 

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Etc.

 

Miguel Paludo and his wife Patricia welcomed a bouncing baby boy, Oliver, to the world on Aug. 22. Oliver weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 ounces. … Harvick’s Michigan victory was KHI’s 37th representing the second most wins in series competition. … KHI and Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks have won 25 of the series 40 most recent races. … Busch and Hornaday are the only previous Bristol winners entered in this week’s race. … There have been 37 series races run on concrete surfaced tracks with 22 different winners led by Busch (seven) and Hornaday (four).

 

NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES  TOP 10
Driver	Points	Points Back
1 - Johnny Sauter	519	0
2 – James Buescher	514	-5
3 – Austin Dillon	511	-8
4 – Timothy Peters	507	-12
5 – Cole Whitt	487	-32
6 - Matt Crafton	475	-44
7 – Ron Hornaday Jr	473	-46
8 - Joey Coulter	468	-51
9 – Parker Kligerman	460	-59
10 - Todd Bodine	448	-71

Series Reaches The 10-To-Go Mark

NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES

 

Series Reaches The 10-To-Go Mark

Late August marks the end of stand-alone season for the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Last Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve put to rest the three road courses on the schedule – basically this series’ three wild-card races. Now, with 10 races left, the stretch run starts with the annual night race at Bristol.

 

The top three in the standings were separated by 18 points after the March race at Bristol. Twenty races later, one of those drivers – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – has moved into the lead. Elliott Sadler, who was in third place, 21 points behind the leader four races ago, has moved back into second, now eight points out. Reed Sorenson, the leader after the July race at Nashville, has slumped a bit as of late but is within striking distance, nine points behind, in third.

 

In March, Sadler topped the top three drivers at Bristol with a fourth-place finish. Stenhouse, who won the pole and has a chance to sweep the season top starting spot, was 14th. Sorenson left with a 34th-place result after a blown engine. That’s been his worst finish of the season.

 

Last year, Sadler led the way with a third-place finish from the pole in his Kevin Harvick Inc. series debut, while Sorenson was eighth. Stenhouse struggled with a 22nd-place finish.

 

Busch Back For More At Bristol

Kyle Busch has re-written a bunch of NASCAR Nationwide Series records, including tying the series mark for victories with 49.

 

Should he capture his record-setting 50th win Friday at Bristol, the 2009 series champion also can become the first series driver to win three consecutive races at the .533-mile track. He’s also won the last five NASCAR national series races at Bristol.

 

Now that stand-alone season is complete, Busch is back in the No. 18 Toyota for the remainder of the year to try and build on the wins record and more importantly, bring another record to Joe Gibbs Racing – a fourth consecutive owner championship. The No. 18 leads the owner standings by 42 points over the second-place No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

 

This race at Bristol will be his 15th, the second-most starts Busch will have made at any track in NASCAR Nationwide Series competition. In addition to his three wins, he’s registered five top fives and 11 top 10s. His 110.3 Driver Rating is best among those entered.

 

NNS Bristol ETC

Timmy Hill and Blake Koch continue their close Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings battle. Hill leads by three points with 10 races to go. And if recent results are any indication, that competition should remain tight this weekend. Hill was 29th and Koch was 30th following their series track debuts at Bristol in March. … Reigning champion Brad Keselowski hasn’t run in a series race since winning at Lucas Oil Raceway in late July. The ankle injury he suffered during a test precluded him from racing at Iowa and Watkins Glen – he was already giving up the seat of the No. 22 Dodge to Jacques Villeneuve at Montreal. Will he get back in his Nationwide car at Bristol or once again turn it over to a substitute driver? In nine career series starts at Bristol, Keselowski has a win, four top fives, six top 10s and two poles. In the three NASCAR Sprint Cup races he’s run without a companion Nationwide event since his injury, Keselowski has a win, two top fives and has moved from 21st to 12th in the points, making him a strong candidate to make The Chase, either as a member of the top 12 or as a wild card.

 

NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES

 NCWTS Championships: Down To The Wire

Ten NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races remain in 2011. Two championships are on the line.

 

Next meeting place? Bristol Motor Speedway.

 

Owners’ championship: The score card shows Kevin Harvick is up two to one in the win column over Kyle Busch the past two weeks.

 

However, the score could be adjusted this weekend. Busch has won the last three truck series races held at Bristol.

 

Harvick’s win this past weekend moved him closer to the lead in the NCWTS owner standings – the duo is currently tied with 583 points. But Busch holds the top spot with four wins this season to Harvick’s two.

 

If Busch wins his fourth consecutive race at Bristol on Wednesday, he will tie Brendan Gaughan for most wins in a row at a particular track. Gaughan won at Texas Motor Speedway in 2002-2003.

 

Drivers’ championship: Just when you think the championship battle cannot get much tighter – it does. Only 12 points separates NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings leader Johnny Sauter from fourth-place contender Timothy Peters – who made up more than half of his points deficit at Michigan with a second-place finish.

 

Austin Dillon dropped from first to third after a crash derailed him to a disappointing 22^nd-place finish.

 

James Buescher moved up to second in the standings, only five points out of the lead following his fourth-place finish. It was his 11 consecutive top-10 finish in 2011.

 

Red Horse Racing Teammates Making 2011 A Record Year

Timothy Peters and Miguel Paludo could be the most unique teammate combination in the truck series garage. Peters is a North Carolina native while Paludo is one of two Brazilians currently in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series garage.

 

The combination is proving successful for Red Horse Racing – who is on track to produce its most successful season in truck series competition.

 

Despite bad luck early in the season, Peters has rebounded with a victory and climbed to fourth in the series standings, only 12 points outside the top spot.

 

If Peters stays in fourth he will match the team’s best standings finish – a fourth with David Starr in 2006.

 

Paludo, who made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at Bristol last season, captured his best series finish (third) at Michigan just one spot behind Peters.

 

Peters has the best average finish of the four championship contenders in the last two Bristol truck races.

 

Chastain Returns At Bristol With TurnOne Racing

Who is Ross Chastain? That is the question everyone was asking following the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Raceway.

 

The 18-year-old Florida native finished 10th in his truck series debut for TurnOne Racing in July.

 

Chastain, 2011 World of Asphalt Stock Car Auto Racing Late Model Champion, returns to competition on Wednesday at Bristol Motor Speedway. It will be his second career NASCAR start.