September 30, 2003

Bill Lester and No. 8 Team Just Miss the Setup at Las Vegas

It was a night of frustration for Bill Lester and the No. 8 Strauss Auto Parts/The Club Dodge Team. They turned in the tenth fastest time in qualifying, and most of the members on the team felt they had a shot at a top ten run. This turned out to not be the case, as almost from the moment the green flag flew, the truck began to get loose and hard to drive.

During the night, the team made several pit stops to adjust the handling of the truck, but nothing seemed to get it to where Lester could race with the top 15 trucks on the track. Lester lost four laps trying to get the setup back under the truck. When everything was said and done, Lester and the team finished a disappointing 20th place.

“We just missed the setup,” said Lester. “From the moment we got here, we just didn’t handle well. We threw just about everything we could at the truck, and we just never got it right. It’s just one of those days and nights that a team would like to forget. The bad thing is these types of tracks the last two weeks traditionally would have been the ones we should have had some of our best runs at. I don’t know. We’ll just have to get to South Boston next week and see what we can do there.”

The weekend was not a total loss as Lester and the No. 8 Team moved into the 12th position in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points standings, which is an all-time high for the team in the series.

“We’ve still got a lot of racing left in the season, so we can’t get too overwhelmed with sitting 12th in the points standings,” said Lester. “We have to stay focused on what we need to accomplish. The guys behind us in the points standings are running well and will be very hard to hold off as the season winds down. We’re going to give it our best though.”

Driver: Bill Lester, No. 8 Strauss Auto Parts/The Club Dodge Team
Starts Pole Wins Top Fives Top Tens Earnings Points Position
20 1 0 0 1 $ 212,580 12th

Race-by-Race Run Down:
Location Start Finish Laps Status Money Won
Daytona 8 18 97 of 106 Accident $ 15,165
Darlington 15 12 144 of 147 Running 9,465
Bakersfield 23 13 255 of 255 Running 8,190
Martinsville 17 19 250 of 250 Running 9,315
Charlotte 1 15 135 of 136 Running 11,890
Dover 15 11 198 of 200 Running 13,750
Texas 13 12 167 of 167 Running 13,165
Memphis 14 26 128 of 200 Running 8,990
Milwaukee 23 12 198 of 200 Running 10,215
Kansas 2 10 167 of 167 Running 14,000
Kentucky 9 12 150 of 150 Running 14,940
St. Louis 14 22 141 of 160 Accident 9,190
Michigan 5 11 100 of 100 Running 12,275
Indy 23 28 191 of 200 Running 7,090
Nashville 7 16 148 of 150 Running 8,640
Bristol 18 19 195 of 200 Running 9,315
Richmond 14 30 143 of 200 Accident 6,365
Loudon 12 13 200 of 200 Running 10,040
California 7 28 85 of 100 Suspension 10,690
Las Vegas 10 20 142 of 146 Running 9,890

South Boston (Next Event)

Totals 3308 of 3434 (96.3%) $ 212,580

NEXT EVENT: The John Boy and Billy Craftsman Truck 250 at South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia on October 4, 2003. The event will be televised live on SPEED Channel at 4:30 PM Eastern Time and also live on MRN radio at 4:30 PM Eastern Time.