June 23, 2003

Ball Joint Breaking Cost Bill Lester Big at Memphis

Bill Lester and the No. 8 BHR Dodge Dealers Dodge team saw their hopes of a strong finish in the O’Reilly 200 vanish when the right front ball joint came loose, cutting down the tire, and sending Lester hard into the outside wall.

“Not much I can say other than it’s just unbelievable,” said Lester. “It’s just my bad luck. It’s my understanding that a ball joint broke, and that’s what cut the tire down. When that happened, I was just hanging on. The truck went up the track and hit the wall a ton. After that, the guys did a tremendous job getting us back out to finish the race. My hat is off to them. It would have been real easy to just say, ‘ok we’re done, let’s go home.’ But instead, they fixed the truck, and we got back out and I think we picked up three spots.”

Lester began the weekend qualifying in the 14th position, after the truck got loose in turn four on his qualifying laps. He actually touched the outside wall on his run, but it didn’t do any damage other than a little paint, but it did drop him back a few spots on the starting grid.

On the restart of the race, Lester was very patient. He fell back to 15th place in the first few laps, but by lap 50, he had moved to 10th position. But just five laps after that move, the ball joint gave way, and the day was over as far as a top ten run was concerned. When Lester went behind the wall, he was in the 29th position. After repairs were made and he got back out on the track, he and the team managed to pick up three positions to finish 26th when the checkered flag flew.

“It just was not our day,” said Lester. “We had fast truck at the start, so it’s hard to say where we might have ended up today. It’s just disappointing for all of us. We all wanted to run well in Randy’s (Seals) first race with the team.

Lester and the team fell one position in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series points standings following the finish. Lester and the team are now 13th in the points standings.

Driver: Bill Lester, No. 8 Dodge Dealers Dodge Team
Starts Pole Wins Top Fives Top Tens Earnings Points Position
8 1 0 0 0 $ 89,930 13th


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 (Next Event)
Totals 1376 of 1461 (94.1%) $ 89,930