Patience and persistence are virtues admired by many.  On Friday night in Daytona, David Starr and his Red Horse Racing team displayed both on their way to a much deserved fourth place finish in the season opening event at the 2.5-mile speed plant of the Daytona International Speedway in their No. 11 Toyota Tundra.

Starr, returning to Red Horse Racing after a one year absence from the team, unloaded off the trailer strong for the beginning of the traditional Speedweeks.  After suffering a transmission failure early in the first practice session of the week, driver and team seemed very confident in what they had in their Toyota Tundra.  This showed in a strong mock qualifying effort at the end of the final practice which led to a qualifying effort on Thursday night of 51.654 second which placed the Texas native 14th on the starting grid for the 250-mile slugfest on Friday night.

At the drop of the green flag, the No. 11 Toyota Tundra fell back into the pack with Starr radioing to crew chief Jamie Jones on lap 10 that he was "free" and having a hard time getting off the corners.  Under caution for the first time in the race, Jones brought his driver and machine down pit road for four fresh tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.  The race would return to green on lap 14 with the Red Horse Racing machine sitting in the 30th position.

The dreaded "big one" would occur on lap 18 and David did a great job in steering clear of the mess.  After a red flag delay for clean up of the ten truck pile up, the No. 11 machine would pit again on lap 20 for fuel and an adjustment on the front end.  The race would resume green flag racing on lap 23 only to have another immediate caution for a five truck wreck.  Starr once again kept his Toyota Tundra clear of the trouble and would come down pit road again under caution on lap 28 for four fresh tires, fuel and another track bar adjustment.

"Turn three seems to be a big problem for me," said Starr before returning to green flag action on lap 33.  On that restart he would line up in the 15th spot, where he slowly began to work his way towards the front.  By lap 41 he had moved inside the top-ten and was running the high line with a fellow Toyota teammate.  However, still experiencing the "loose" condition on his machine forced Starr to play it cautious.  "Too loose and the truck is jumping out from underneath me so I had to get out of that pack," stated Starr.  "I am struggling from the center - off the corners and the bumps seem to be hurting me."

A caution on lap 53 presented the opportunity for Jones to once again bring his driver and machine down pit road for much needed attention - four tires, fuel and yet another track bar adjustment to the No. 11 Toyota Tundra.  A solid stop by the Red Horse Racing crew returned David to the track in the 13th position.  Once back to green flag racing the multiple adjustments seemed to begin working as Starr moved his way inside the top-ten on lap 65. 

A much needed long green flag run produced green flag pit stops for the final time of the evening on lap 85.  Starr came down to the attention of his crew for a quick stop of right side tires and fuel.  Returning to the track in the seventh position, Starr radioed to his crew his Toyota was good and that he could now run wide open and get off the corners further stating that the last round of adjustments really helped.

The last ten laps of the race would produce some exciting clean racing with Starr right there in the middle contending for the win while riding as high as third.  He would fall into the fourth position in a late race shuffle where he would remain until he took the checkered flag.

"Good job JJ (Jamie Jones) and all of you guys," said Starr after the race.  "I am happy with that finish; no one on this team gave up tonight.  We struggled early on in the race and we just kept working on it.  This really shows how strong this team is.  We were probably lucky in some respects that we struggled early on as that seemed to keep us clear of the two big wrecks out there tonight.  But we just kept working on it and our Toyota Tundra was real good there at the end of the race.  Tonight it all worked out for us and this is a good start to the year."

Starr and the Red Horse Racing team will take the No. 11 Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra to California Speedway for the running of the San Bernardino 200 on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008.  Live television coverage will be provided by FOX at 3:00 p.m. ET with radio coverage coming to you live from MRN Radio.

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