“Vibration Hampers Late Race Charge”

The light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter for NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rookie Chase Montgomery. The 20-year-old put on a strong performance under the lights Friday night as he piloted his #8 DODGE to a 17th place finish in the running of the O’Reilly 400 at the Texas Motor Speedway.

“I think we are starting to gain on it,” stated Chase.  “We continued to make the truck better throughout the weekend and I got better as well.  We had a truck a little better than where we finished but we developed a vibration near the end.  Also, I hit some type of debris there with about 20 laps to go and it actually cracked my windshield – not sure what it was but it caused some damage.”

Montgomery started the 167 lap event from the 29th position as he worked on the handling of his DODGE truck.  In what has become a normal occurrence this season, Chase charged through the field once the green flag flew to start the race.  By lap 27, Chase and his BHR2 team had moved their way inside the top 15.

In a race stopped by only 3 caution periods, Montgomery and his crew pulled off strong pit stops all evening – including the last one of the night under green flag racing conditions on lap 132.  Shortly after this stop, Chase radioed back to his crew that he had a vibration.  With no caution available to come down pit road and find the problem, Montgomery was relegated to not pushing his #8 DODGE truck and safely bringing it home to still a nice finish.

“These guys did a great job in the pits tonight,” said Montgomery.  We gained spots on the race track with each pit stop and that is important with the competitive level of this series.  We are still a new team in many respects but the last two weeks we have shown some very positive progress in all areas – including driver as I learn more about these trucks.”

The finish kept Montgomery in the 23rd spot in the overall driver’s standings as well as maintaining the 5th position in the highly contested battle for the Rookie of the Year honor.

Chase and his Tennessee based BHR2 team now focus their attention on the home state track of the Memphis Motorsports Park this Saturday.