David Green made his debut on the newly configured 1.5-mile oval of Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, and there was no disputing that Green’s No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra was fast.  After a short delay for rain, Green paced practice with a fifth place lap time and stepped it up for qualifying, claiming a third-place starting spot for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series running of the Smith’s Las Vegas 350.  Green ran no lower than eighth the entire night before struggling in the last 20 laps and sliding to 18th at the drop of the checkered flag.

“I knew from our race at Kentucky Speedway that our mile-and-a-half stuff was good,” explained Green.  “Last week, (Crew Chief Jamie Jones) “JJ” and the guys worked very hard on this truck, trying some new set-up stuff.  I was very excited to get in our RFMS Toyota and see what it felt like.  Plus, I had never raced on this new configuration before.” 

Even though Green had never raced in Las Vegas since the track was repaved last year, he took to the track in practice and wasted no time getting adjusted to the new banking.  When qualifying came around, Green stepped it up from practice and laid down a lap of 30.954 second at a speed of 174.452 which was good for a third place starting spot.

“Our practice was by far the best practice we’ve had all year,” said Green.  “Practice went so good and I had a lot of confidence that qualifying would be good as well.  “JJ” and I were both cautiously optimistic about the race because as good as everything was in the daytime we didn’t know how the night-time would affect things.” 

Racing at night did not seem to be a problem for the Red Horse Racing team, but problems began to surface early for a few teams as tire wear became an issue when the No. 60 cut a tire and hit the wall in turn two to bring out the event’s first caution on lap 33.  “JJ” called Green to pit road for four tires, fuel, along with air pressure and track bar adjustments, returning him to the track in fourth position.  After inspecting the tires, “JJ” noticed that the right front and right rear tires were going flat.

When the race resumed on lap 37, Green cleared lap traffic and fell in single file until the next caution flew on lap 42.  “It felt a lot better,” Green said to the crew.  “We need to try and take weight off the right front,” replied “JJ”.  “They’re having some tire issues on pit road.  Keep your blowers on.  We can’t afford to have too much heat in the right front tire.” 

Knowing that you have to be there at the end to win, Green slid to seventh to save his tires while avoiding the next two cautions.  “We’re a little tight, but those adjustments helped it some,” said Green to the crew before diving to pit road on lap 92 for four tires, fuel, and another round of air pressure and track bar adjustments. 

When the race resumed, Green skated through a two truck wreck on lap 94.  “That was going to be big,” he said.  “But everything is good.”  Just a few laps later, Green threaded the needle by diving low to avoid another wreck.  Green remained in the top-10, even though he had to take evasive action to avoid two wrecks. 

At the restart on lap 118, Green was battling for position with Terry Cook when something happened to his Toyota Tundra.  “I got down in turn one and two and bottomed out and about spun out and lost a few spots.  From that point on to the very end, the truck just drug all the way around the race track.  It really felt like maybe we had lost a spring or a spring had collapsed.  When I was dragging the track, I cut the wheel and the thing wouldn’t turn and I went up the race track.”

Green held strong within the top-10 until the event’s final caution fell for a blown tire in turn three.  Before the restart, Green keyed the radio to say, “No matter what happens here, you guys have done a whale of a job.”  When the green flag waved for the eight lap shootout, Green gradually slid to 18th.  

“That last caution hurt us because it let everyone bunch back up,” said Green.  “At that point, we had lost all our handle with the front tires and front grip.  It was bad timing for the caution, and I think that kept us from having a top-10.  It was such a huge turn of the corner for us.  The mere fact that I haven’t had a race under my belt at this track says how good “JJ” was able to make our truck and adjust on it.  Disregarding our finish, it was a good night for us.  We ran competitively and learned a lot about our new set-up.  I’m excited about it, although I’m not happy that we finished 18th.  We should have finished fifth or maybe even better.  Misfortune happened that kept us from a top-5 finish.” 

Green and the Red Horse Racing team will enjoy a weekend off before taking the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra to Talladega Superspeedway for the Mountain Dew 250 on Saturday, October 6th, 2007.  Live television coverage will be provided by the SPEED Channel at 3:30 p.m. ET with radio coverage coming to you live from MRN Radio.