David Green and the Red Horse Racing team were as strong as the Gateway Arch while in St. Louis on Saturday for the Missouri/Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200, but debris severed their chances for a top-three finish while running third with three laps to go at the 1.25-mile oval of Gateway International Raceway.

“From the first lap that we ran on the track until three to go was a real testament to the team,” explained Green after he climbed from the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota.  “We unloaded fairly decent and the truck felt good for me.”

Even though the truck felt good for Green, an early qualifying draw kept Green from duplicating his mock qualifying run that put him fourth on the time sheets in final practice.  “Our mock qualifying run in practice was good,” said Green.  “We just knew that with an early qualifying draw we wouldn’t get the starting spot that we deserved but I was still happy with it.”

Green was happy after posting the 16th fastest qualifying time with a lap of 34. 343 seconds at a speed of 131.031 miles per hour.

At the drop of the green flag, Green wasted no time working his way through the field even though he was “loose from the center off”.  When the first caution fell on lap 16 for a wreck in turn three, Crew Chief Jamie “JJ” Jones told Green, “When you got by yourself, you were catching those three trucks in front of you.  You were two-tenths better.”

Green continued to be better than his competition as he picked off truck after truck and moved into seventh position by lap 56.  When the next caution was displayed for debris, “JJ” called Green to pit road where the crew threw on four fresh tires, fuel, and made an air pressure adjustment to the No. 1 Toyota, returning Green to the track in second position – proving that their training at PIT Instruction and Training in Mooresville, North Carolina had really paid off.

Green raced his way around lap traffic but began to lose his grip in turns three and four as the event’s former leader made a pass for position on lap 92.  Green slid to fourth on lap 96 but remained there until hitting pit road, under caution on lap 106 for four tires, fuel, and another air pressure adjustment.  The pit crew shined when the pressure was on and returned Green to the track as the new race leader.

When the race returned to green flag action, the fast truck of Ron Hornaday made his way past the No. 1 Toyota and another truck followed suit.  Green remained in third until falling victim to a cut tire with three laps to go.  Green brought his No. 1 RFMS / Red Horse Racing Toyota to pit road, finishing the 160-lap event three laps down in 20th position.

“At the start of the race everything clicked,” said Green.  “The pit crew was awesome, as always.  Out of all the races that I’ve run, this is the most comfortable that I’ve felt in a truck and I think the results were showing up until our incident.  What a good day.  I know it’s hard to say it’s a good day after we ran over something and blew a right front tire, but it was.  It was a great day.  The pit crew shined.  It’s really disheartening to see not only a good finish go away but a top-three finish go away.  I guess there was some debris around the track because our tire wear looked fine, but at the flag stand I felt something that didn’t feel right and all of a sudden it snapped to the right and into the wall.  It’s just disappointing but everybody should feel good about what we’ve accomplished this weekend.”

Green and the Red Horse Racing team will take the weekend off before taking the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra to New Hampshire International Speedway on Saturday, September 15th, 2007 for the running of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series New Hampshire 200.  Live television coverage will be provided by the SPEED Channel at 2:30 p.m. ET with radio coverage coming to you live from MRN Radio.