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Daytona Beach, Fla. (January 15, 2008)
- David Starr and Red Horse Racing reunited at the 2.5-mile oval of Daytona
International Speedway on Friday for the first round of NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series Preseason Thunder testing at the historic superspeedway. Even though the test was in Florida, Starr knew that
he had returned home after taking back the reigns of the No. 11 Red Horse Racing
Toyota Tundra for the first time since 2006.
“It really feels like I came home,” said
Starr of rejoining the Red Horse Racing.
“When I found out late in the season last year that I was coming back to
this Red Horse Racing team and Toyota, I couldn’t believe it. Working for Tom DeLoach and Jeff Hammond
(Team Owners) and Jamie Jones (Crew Chief) is so much fun, and the guys on this
team are some of the hardest working guys in racing. They showed last year that they can put
a top-10 truck on the track every race, no matter the driver, and I’m excited
about that.”
Starr was equally excited after running in
the top-ten in drafting practice, but that excitement quickly turned after
Brendan Gaughan made contact with the rear bumper of Starr’s No. 11 Red Horse
Racing Toyota Tundra, sending Starr hard into the outside retaining
wall.
“We had been
‘free’ the whole test,” explained Starr.
“Jamie Jones kept working on it and making it better. Finally, we
got it where we wanted it and I went out there and came from the back to the
front. I was running with the No. 10 (Brendan Gaughan) truck for a while,
and finally got around him with a push from someone. A lap or so later,
Brendan got a good run and I’m not sure what happened. Maybe he didn’t
realize how fast he was closing. I came off turn two and was just driving
down the back straightaway -- and all of a sudden, the back of the truck
came off the ground. I didn’t have a chance to do anything. I just
hate it for my team. It’s just a
shame.”
Not even one day into the three-day
test, the Red Horse Racing team was forced to pull out their backup truck. “You can’t bump draft with these trucks because the front and rear
bumpers don’t line up,” explained Starr.
“You can’t even think about touching somebody out there. Even when
somebody hits me soft, I almost lose control. When somebody bumps you
harder than soft, it’s going to create a wreck. I’m just disappointed
because it happened on the straightaway testing. It would’ve been
different if it were the last two laps of the
race.”
Starr’s backup truck hit the track for the
first time on Saturday morning and was just as good as his primary truck,
proving that all of the trucks from the Red Horse Racing stable are
competitive. Knowing that, Starr
has set some attainable goals for the 2008 season.
“I want to get to Homestead in November with
a shot at the Championship,” he explained.
“We finished fourth in points in 2006 with this team and we were able to
win a race, so I think we can improve from that. We struggled a bit on the
mile-and-a-half tracks that year, but Jamie (Jones) says he’s got some things
figured out where we’ll be running near the front throughout the season. I’d like to win a handful of races and
be in the hunt for the championship.”
Starr and the Red Horse Racing team will
continue their off-season testing on Tuesday, January 22nd with a
two-day NASCAR sanctioned test at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
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