|
May 5, 2002
Bobby Hamilton Racing Race
Report for St. Louis
Rearend Gear Brings Robert Pressley
Points Lead to a Halt
Click Here For Robert Pressley
Career Statistics
Robert Pressley and the No. 18 Bobby Hamilton Racing Team
came into the Ram Tough 200 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series points lead on Sunday, but all that changed in one
lap. Pressley took the green flag in the seventh position,
but just as he went through turns one and two on the Gateway
International Raceway, the truck lost power and coasted to
the garage area with a broken rearend gear. The team rushed
into action to correct the problem, which took only 21 laps,
but for all practical purposes, the race was over. Now the
only thing to do was to try and get back out on the track
and pick up as many points as possible.
“Sometimes you just have unbelievable things happen to you,”
said Pressley. “This is one of them. This will hurt us for a
week or two, but this is a strong team and we’ll be back at
the front of the points before the season is over. Right now
we’re just being tested, and I know that the team that Bobby
(Hamilton) has put together will not let something like this
keep us down for very long. The big thing is that we just
can’t have very many of these types of freak things happen.”
The team got back on the track and was able to pickup two
laps and five points to finish in the 31st position.
Pressley lost the points lead and now sets in the fifth
position in the standings. The top five drivers and team in
the Truck Series points standings are now separated by only
47 points.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Lester Gets Best Start and
Finish at Gateway International
Click Here For Bill Lester Career
Statistics
Bill Lester and the No. 8
Dodge Motorsports Bobby Hamilton Racing Team came into St.
Louis looking for anything that would get them back on track
for the season, and that is what the weekend turned out to
be. On Thursday, May 2, the No. 8 Team won the Dodge Pit
Crew Challenge, beating the No. 43 team, then turned in a
season best qualifying effort of 12th place on Saturday, and
raced to a career best 17th place in the event on Sunday.
The only disappointing event of the entire weekend was the
fact that a fuel pick up problem with the truck my have cost
them an even better finish. Lester was a force on the track
all day, running laps as fast as the lead trucks. He spent
much of the day running in the top 10 and just before the
fuel problem, was running in the fourth position.
“Well, just coming out of here in one piece was a huge
accomplishment,” said Lester. “It was a big relief, a load
off of my shoulders, pretty much every other description
like that probably applies. We were good. They told me at
one point that we were the third fastest truck on the track.
I just tried to keep my rhythm, keep my nose down, and focus
and concentrate. We tried to be patient, and at the same
time be aggressive. The most important thing is to keep the
fenders on our No. 8 Dodge. Our motto is “to finish first,
you must first finish.” So I'm proud of that. I think we
kind of miscalculated on our fuel mileage and it kind of
dropped us behind. But, I did my best.”
Following the event and the 17th place finish, Lester and
the team moved in the 19th position in the points standings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Rose Has Strong Run at Gateway International Raceway
Click Here For Brian Rose Career Statistics
Brian Rose welcomed his new
sponsor on board this weekend, by recording his third top
ten finish in four races this year. Rose began the event
from the 27th position after a miscue during qualifying cost
him on the track. During the race, however, he was as
patient as any veteran driver would have been, which is a
test for the young, aggressive 22-year old. He moved up
steadily during the race, passing guys as opportunity
presented itself. He ran as high as second at one point
before a last stop for fuel. Rose battled back in the final
few laps to post an eighth place finish in the Ram Tough
200.
“This feels really good, considering where we started,” said
Rose. “We had an objective to come here and get a good
finish. We needed to run good to keep our position in the
points. We needed to get a little bit more respect from some
of these other drivers out here. There is a lot of great
talent out here, and I’m a new face, and I need to try and
gain their respect. We really struggled after qualifying and
happy hour yesterday. The crew worked really hard last night
back at the hotel talking about what we were going to do
today. We had great stops today in the pits. I believe we
picked up a position each time we came in. I just can't say
enough about everyone, including our new sponsor, the Perry
Connection. They came on and joined us and were able to get
us here to this race. We weren't really sure that we were
coming this weekend, so to be here running was our big
dream. To run good and get another top 10 was just huge.”
Rose remains in the seventh position in the NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series points standings, but with the finish, he
closed the gap between he and the leader of the standings to
a mere 57 points. In fact, only 75 points separate the
entire top 10 drivers in the points standings.
NEXT EVENT: ROCKY MOUNTAIN 200, Presented by Dodge, Pikes
Peak International Raceway in Fountain, CO on 5/19/02.
|
