October 6, 2003

Lester Finished a Disappointing 23rd Position at South Boston Speedway

Bill Lester and the No. 8 Strauss Auto Parts/The Club Dodge Team rounded out a tough weekend at South Boston Speedway with a 23rd place finish. The No. 8 Team began the day from the 24th position, but just never did get the handle right for Lester to make a run at the top twenty in the race.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Lester. “The truck was so tight in the middle of the turns I couldn’t drive it. Then when you would come off the corners it had no forward bit. Trucks could get up under me in the turns and then they were gone down the straight-aways. We just did not have the setup the way we needed to have it to run with the other teams. Thank goodness we’re done with that short track. Now we can get to Texas. I love that place. It’s fast and big, just the way I like to race. I love the speedways. We should have shot at a top ten finish there.”

Lester and the No. 8 team fell to 13th position in the points standings after the 23rd place finish. He is now 16 points behind Robert Pressley, who is in the 12th position and 84 points ahead of David Starr, who is running in the 14th position in the points standings.

We need a strong run next week so we can get back by Robert (Pressley) in the points standings,” said Lester. “We’re in a fight for 12th position with the No. 59 truck and the No. 75 truck. It’s going to take some strong runs to end the year before we’re going to beat them.”

With four races remaining in the 2003 season, there are nine drivers that can still mathematically win the 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship. Despite being eliminated from the championship hunt Lester and the No. 8 Team will improve over last year’s 15th place finish in the Truck Series points standings.

NEXT EVENT: Silverado 350K at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas on October 11, 2003. The event will be televised live on SPEED Channel at 3:00 PM Eastern Time and also live on MRN radio at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.