Ken Schrader knew Mansfield Motorsports Park was his type of race track the moment he laid eyes on it Friday morning. He consistently proved that during the rain drenched weekend. Schrader unloaded as the fastest truck in practice and qualified the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge in the 14th position. Once the race began he didn't stay there long. By lap 79 of the Ohio 250 lap the short track guru cracked the top 10 and never looked back. After two red flags for thunderstorms, 13 caution flags and 250 laps of bumper to bumper action Schrader drove the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge home in third place. It was the team's best finish of the season. The top-five finish moved the team up four spots into 13th place in the NCTS Owner Points.
"This is a team building day," said Schrader after the event. "We have been getting better and better each week. This week it really paid off for us. This was big for this team. They really needed a boost of confidence and I think today we did that. I love driving this truck and I am really looking forward to what is ahead for all of us."
Dennis Setzer won the The Ohio 250 before an estimated crowd of 15,000. Jack Sprague, Schrader, Mike Skinner and Johnny Benson rounded out the top five finishers. The next event for the NCTS will be at Dover International Speedway on June 1, 2007 with Schrader driving the Fastenal Dodge.
Stephen Leicht, driver of the No. 90 Citi Ford, raced his way to a hard-fought, top 10 finish Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Pit strategy and persistence by Leicht paid great dividends and he was the only NASCAR Busch Series regular to finish inside the top-10.
“It feels so good to get a top 10, especially with Citi onboard to support us this weekend,” said Leicht. “This entire Robert Yates Racing team has worked so hard for so long and I haven’t been in the position in the end to get the finishes that this team deserves, but I did tonight. It was a total team effort. Everything was on point tonight and I am so proud of my guys.”
“Cully made a great call for us to stay out at the end. We were still running 11th or 12th when that happened and that put us up to fourth, and then with the three cautions in a row it put us in the window that we could make it on fuel, so it worked out in our favor. The tires are so hard here that I don’t think there’s a ton of difference between new tires and old ones. Newer tires helped some, but not enough to come from the back, so we just took that chance and it paid off.”
The Citi Team will travel to Dover International Speedway next weekend for the Dover 200. Coverage begins June 2 live on ESPN2 and MRN at 2:30 EST.
J.J. Yeley is in the final year of his contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, and team president J.J. Gibbs said this weekend that the driver’s performance will determine whether he’s back with the No. 18 team in 2008 and beyond. So Yeley’s second-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 would seem to have come at an opportune time.
“I do my best every time we go on the track,” Yeley said. “If I get fired I get fired. …I’m not worried about not having a ride. If I couldn’t find anything in Nextel Cup, I’ll go back to racing sprint cars. That’s all I know how to do. I’m going to drive a race car – regardless of whether it’s here or somewhere else.”
The Coca-Cola 600 was only a 75 mile show for a dozen or so Nextel Cup drivers on Sunday. As the 43-car field rounded the 1.5-mile oval on Lap 52 of 400, the tire tread from Jimmie Johnson's car flew across the track. As the cars around him slowed to avoid the debris, a chain reaction occurred, causing a melee down the frontstretch.
“All I saw was the tire flying,” said Juan Pablo Montoya, who returned to the race after extensive repairs to his car. “I managed to slow down my car but I just get pushed from behind by Kasey Kahne and that was it.”
David Gilliland saw the same thing. “I just saw a piece of tire come up and everybody started wrecking,” he said. “On the restart everybody is kind of bunched up and everybody is just super-close and it’s too bad." Gilliland was struck from behind pushing the #38 into the car in front of him causing severe damage to both the front and rear of the M&M’S / Shrek the Third Ford.
"We just didn't have anywhere to go," said Sterling Marlin. "We were on the outside and our Pep Boys Chevy got shoved into the wall. There was nothing anyone could do."
CONSIDERING HOW THE WEEKEND STARTED YOU MUST BE PLEASED WITH THIS FINISH.
"It's not typical for us lately, that's for sure. We knew when we tested here that we had a really good car and then I crashed it in practice and I had my doubts. There were a lot of things that we couldn't duplicate on the back-up, so it was nice to be able to get the car where it needed to be by the end of the race."
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